The international break is upon us and many players have reported to their respective national teams for duty and others simply have too much time on their hands and want to keep talking about the Neymar Jr. transfer saga.
This is the case for one Lionel Messi who made some interesting comments regarding Neymar to RAC1, which will be broadcasted on Wednesday.
📢 MESSI a @rac1: "Vaig pensar que si Neymar no venia aquí, aniria al Madrid. Ell tenia moltes ganes de sortir, d'un canvi, de marxar del París. Pensava que Florentino i el Madrid farien alguna cosa per fitxar-lo".
Demà a les 9 del matí, l'entrevista sencera a @elmonarac1! pic.twitter.com/O9ABbDtmkX
— Esports RAC1 (@EsportsRAC1) October 8, 2019
For those who don’t speak Spanish, Marca translated his commentary:
“I really thought Neymar would go to Real Madrid if he didn’t come here [FC Barcelona],” Messi said. “He really wanted to leave Paris and he’d shown it,” he continued. “And I thought that Florentino [Pérez] and Real Madrid were going to do something to sign him.”
In Julien Laurens detailed story for ESPN about the failed Neymar transfer, he confirmed that Real Madrid was in fact interested in signing the Brazilian.
“Real were never far off the conversation but never got too close, either,” Laurens writes. Signing Neymar while their rivals frantically tried to come up with a deal suitable for PSG was almost too good to pass up for Los Blancos. They remained in contact with PSG, even pulling off a swap deal for Alphonse Areola and Keylor Navas (ESPN), but a realistic transfer package for Neymar never materialized.
Whether it’s Neymar or Kylian Mbappé, Paris Saint-Germain will likely be receiving phone calls from both Real Madrid and Barcelona next summer with both clubs are desperate to sign PSG’s stars.
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