Seven years later, Neymar Jr.'s departure from FC Barcelona remains a topic of interest in the Catalan city. The Brazilian star made one of the biggest headlines of the last decade when he left Spotify Camp Nou in the summer of 2017 to join Paris Saint-Germain, who paid the 222 million euros of the player's release clause to bring him into their ranks.
The operation that ultimately sparked the inflation of prices in the transfer market was orchestrated by the father and representative of the winger, Neymar Santos Sr., who recently explained the details of his arrival at Can Barça in 2013 and his subsequent departure to the Parc des Princes.
Neymar didn't want to be in Messi's shadow
'O Pai', as Neymar's father is known, revealed that "signing for Barça was a completely personal decision. I had offers from both Barça and Madrid in my hands. The one from Madrid was three times higher. And he said no, that he wanted to play with those guys (referring to Suárez and Messi). His dream was to play at Barça".
Similarly, Neymar Sr. stated that it was the player himself who made the decision to leave the Catalan city as he was not willing to take over Lionel Messi's role in the team. "Going to PSG was also his decision, he decided to change. At that moment we were in a very difficult situation at Barça because we didn't know what the sporting management was thinking," the father of the winger began to explain.
"It seemed that the club wanted him to take Messi's place and he didn't want that"
"He decided to leave, to go somewhere else. I wanted my son to stay at Barça. Until the last days we tried to make him not leave. But he left because he didn't want to take Messi's position and be the biggest star at Barça," concluded the footballer's father, finally putting to rest the existing doubts surrounding the Brazilian's departure from the culé team.