Hope for Barcelona as Neymar forces Messi out

Stuart Telford

• 14 Mar 2023 15:50 GMT
• 3 min read

Barcelona have made no secret of their desire to see Lionel Messi return to the club, and their former player Neymar - Messi's PSG teammate - could now be helping them to that end.

Messi is out of contract with Paris Saint-Germain in the summer, and he has yet to agree fresh terms with the French champions.

The Argentine World Cup winner's former club Barcelona have been linked with a move for him, as have David Beckham's Inter Miami, while Sergio Aguero let slip recently that his old friend was destined for hometown club Newell's Old Boys.

READ: Messi’s €600m demand to play with Ronaldo

But Messi is yet to go public on his future, even if his father and agent Jorge was in Barcelona recently meeting with club president Javier Tebas.

Barca have been told by La Liga to improve their balance sheet by €200m by next summer, but with Tebas working hard to activate more 'financial levers' and a host of players for sale at Camp Nou, Messi on a free could be the difference between him returning or not.

No more MNM

And while Barca are working hard to balance their books, PSG also have to work to satisfy Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations, and it is understood they can't keep each of Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar at the Parc des Princes beyond the end of the season.

READ: PSG target SIX signings to support Mbappe

Whilst PSG have no intention of giving Mbappe up to Real Madrid - they briefly made him the highest paid player of all-time to encourage his U-turn away from the Santiago bernabeu last May - they are unable to offload Neymar.

"Neymar is often linked with a return to Barcelona and moves elsewhere, but he has stayed at PSG and that looks set to remain the case - because the 31-year-old wants to finish his career there," reports the Athletic's David Ornstein.

"But irrespective of the finances involved, Neymar's wish is to finish his playing days with PSG and help them achieve further success, particularly in the one tournament they are yet to conquer [the Champions League]."

That leaves Messi as the most likely to leave the French capital at the end of the season.