Ever since Paris Saint-Germain paid Neymar Jr.’s buyout clause at FC Barcelona in 2017 and brought the Brazilian superstar to the French capital, the Catalan club has been trying to get back at the nine-time Ligue 1 champions.
Their efforts have primarily focused on trying to bring Neymar back to La Liga, and they were close last summer, but they couldn’t come up with the funds to satisfy PSG’s demands.
With Barcelona’s financial situation not being great, I thought I would go through PSG’s lineup and provide a few low-budget and realistic options for their executives to consider as they look to give Lionel Messi some help for next season.
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Several PSG players are on expiring contracts and as of today’s date, none of them have signed an extension. That means they can leave for Barcelona after June 30, and the club and player would have to agree to a new contract. If Barcelona are strapped for cash, this seems like a good option for them to fill out their squad.
- Layvin Kurzawa
- Thiago Silva
- Edinson Cavani
- Thomas Meunier
- Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting
Budget Buys
There’s good value in those free transfers but some of them may be retained by PSG (Thiago Silva and Edinson Cavani) and others (Thomas Meunier and Layvin Kurzawa) are already targeted by other clubs who will likely offer them more playing time.
There are still a couple of players Barcelona could target if they need to fill out their squad that PSG would likely be happy to negotiate a reasonable transfer fee for.
- Julian Draxler has one more year on his contract and PSG would accept less than the €35 million they paid VfL Wolfsburg in 2017. He’s a seldom-used player in search of game time to boost his chances of making Germany’s national team for next summer’s UEFA European Championship.
- Leandro Paredes is considered Neymar Jr.’s bodyguard on the pitch but with PSG looking to sign a midfielder this summer, the chances of Paredes and the Brazilian playing together on a regular basis doesn’t look good. PSG paid €40 million for Paredes in 2019 but Transfermarkt rates the Argentine at half that. The bonus for Barcelona signing Paredes is that he apparently talks frequently with Neymar. Maybe he could leak some information to the Spanish press if he makes the move.
- Alphonse Areola plays a position Barcelona doesn’t really need, goalkeeper, but after his loan at Real Madrid expires at the end of the season, PSG will be keen to offload him as soon as possible as Keylor Navas is the preferred starting goalkeeper. The Frenchman has a value of €13 million according to Transfermarkt.
Look But Don’t Touch
I don’t care what you read or what someone tells you, there is practically no chance Kylian Mbappé or Neymar leaves PSG this summer. So for now, Barcelona and their partners in the media can make up all the stories they want but it won’t get them any closer to seeing either one of these superstars at the Camp Nou.
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