The superstar era at Paris Saint-Germain has ended, with Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, and Neymar Jr. leaving over the past two summers. Yet, the tales of their arrivals in the French capital continue to be a hot topic of conversation.
Neymar was the first of the three to come as PSG paid the €222 million release clause to take the Brazilian from FC Barcelona in 2017. It’s been seven years, and every year, those involved in the situation share their thoughts on what happened and the fallout from Neymar’s decision to leave Camp Nou.
In an interview with SPORT (h/t Le10Sport), Javier Bordas, former vice-president of Barcelona, revealed that he wishes Neymar would’ve stayed and not left for PSG. Bordas also notes that the 32-year-old wanted to return to the Catalan side. Moreover, he states that the player would’ve won a significant award had he made his way back to Barcelona.
“I would have liked him to stay and there were options for him to come back,” Bordas said. “If he had come back, he would have won the Ballon d’Or with Barça. He wanted to come back so much that a few weeks after his departure, he already wanted to come back.”
Neymar was close to winning the UEFA Champions League with PSG in 2020, but the team lost in the final to Bayern Munich. Still, had they won the contest the entire fee that the team paid would’ve been worth it since it’s the trophy that has long eluded the club.
