Neymar has three years left to run on his £25m-a-year contract at Paris Saint-Germain; it has been a turbulent summer in Paris with Lionel Messi leaving and the high-profile stand-off with Kylian Mbappe
Tuesday 8 August 2023 08:15, UK
Paris Saint-Germain will listen to offers for Neymar this summer after he informed the club he wants to leave.
Offers between £50m and £80m, depending on who the buyer is, will be considered by PSG for Neymar, the most expensive player in the world.
Ideally, Neymar would like to return to Barcelona but it is difficult to see how they can afford him because of their financial problems.
Despite denials, PSG's management have been told Neymar wants to leave. He has three years left to run on his £25m-a-year contract. There remains a question over whether he is jumping or being pushed.
At 31, he is not thought to be a key player for new head coach Luis Enrique as he builds a new side. PSG have been open to selling him in order to focus on building a younger, hungrier team.
Clubs in Saudi Arabia, Brazil, USA and Europe are all expected to try and sign the player this summer. There were discussions with Chelsea in January.
It has been a turbulent summer in Paris with Lionel Messi leaving and the high-profile stand-off with Kylian Mbappe.
The club did not comment on the matter when approached by Sky Sports News, but it is understood the Brazil superstar, who is under contract until 2025, has yet to formally communicate his intention to leave to the club's executives.
The club are resigned to either selling France striker Mbappe this summer or losing him for nothing next summer, when he will be out of contract.
Messi left the club earlier this summer to join Inter Miami and, if Neymar and Mbappe follow him out of PSG, it will well and truly mark the end of an era.
The club are trying to shake off what their president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has previously described as their "bling bling" image of the past and work to develop more players organically rather than bring in top-of-the-range superstars.
Neymar was arguably the epitome of the old approach, with PSG smashing the world transfer record to sign him from Barcelona in 2017 for €222m (£200m at the time).
He has won France's Ligue 1 title five times since joining PSG but has failed to add to the single Champions League crown he won with Barca in 2015.
Mbappe, meanwhile, has been left out of PSG's main training group as the stand-off over his contract continues.
PSG sources are convinced he has already reached an agreement to officially sign for Real Madrid when his contract expires and benefit from a €160m signing-on fee as a free agent.
PSG are understood to have even offered Mbappe a new contract with a "guaranteed sale" clause in it confirming he can leave for a fee next summer, but sources say his representatives have refused to engage on that, or any other, offer they have made.
PSG gave Al Hilal permission to speak to Mbappe after the Saudi club tabled a world record £259m offer last month. However, it was reported Mbappe and his representatives declined to even meet a delegation from the club when they visited Paris.
Chelsea and Barcelona are also understood to be trying to put together player-plus-cash deals to bring in Mbappe, who won the World Cup with France in 2018 and also starred at last year's finals in Qatar.
Sky Sports News chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol:
"Neymar wants to return to Barcelona but right now it's very difficult to see how they can afford him because of their well-documented financial problems.
"In terms of PSG, the plan is to build a younger, hungrier side made up predominantly of French players. Of course, there are still going to be foreign players signed as well but we've seen PSG try to sign Ousmane Dembele - and I think they're going to do that.
"They've been a little bit cute as they've triggered a release clause in his contract at Barcelona. Maybe this is a bit tit-for-tat from Barcelona by them saying, 'you're taking Dembele off us for just €50m - we're going to try and destabilise you by trying to sign Neymar'.
"PSG do want to end this Galactico culture. Some people will be saying it really suited the club's Qatari owners given the Qatar World Cup last December to have had a star-studded side, and now it is over, these players are expendable.
"I am sure that PSG's future is not based around players like Kylian Mbappe or Neymar. Their future is Dembele, Goncalo Ramos - the Benfica striker they are signing. They want players who are fully committed to PSG. Neymar is seen as the past, not the future."
PSG have signed Portugal striker Goncalo Ramos from Benfica on a season-long loan with an option to buy, the Ligue 1 club announced on Monday.
"It is a great pride and an immense happiness to join Paris Saint-Germain. PSG is one of the biggest clubs in the world with one of the best squads," the 22-year-old said.
Ramos made his debut for Benfica in 2020 after joining the club's academy aged 12 and scored 41 goals with 16 assists in 106 appearances for the Portuguese champions.
He made headlines in his first World Cup start last year with a hat-trick to help Portugal reach the quarter-finals after taking the place of all-time leading scorer Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ramos joins new signings Marco Asensio, Milan Skriniar, Lee Kang-in, Hugo Ekitike, Lucas Hernandez and Manuel Ugarte at PSG, who sacked manager Christophe Galtier in July and replaced him with former Barcelona and Spain coach Luis Enrique.
The Ligue 1 champions are also close to completing a deal to sign France forward Ousmane Dembele from Barcelona.
Ousmane Dembele made no secret only a month ago that he was happy at Barcelona, but now he wants to leave for Paris Saint-Germain.
Dembele, who signed for Barca in 2017 from Borussia Dortmund for £135m, was keen to discuss a new contract with the club ahead of his current deal expiring in 2024.
The 26-year-old told Marca in June: "I don't know why there's been so much talk about PSG. It must be because I'm French.
"It's going very well. Barcelona want me to renew until 2027, and my representative will talk to them. I am happy at the team, also at home, in Barcelona. So we'll see what happens."
Since, however, Sky Sports News understands there has not been a lot of progress over this extension and, in the meantime, the dynamics at both Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain have shifted.
Who will be on the move this summer when the transfer window opens on June 14 and closes at 11pm on September 1 in England and midnight in Scotland?
Keep up to date with all the latest transfer news and rumours in our dedicated Transfer Centre blog on Sky Sports' digital platforms. You can also catch up with the ins, outs and analysis on Sky Sports News.
