Neymar Agrees To Stay At Paris St-Germain After Talks Break Down With Barcelona

Paris Saint-Germain have retained their forward, Neymar Jr, who was signed for a record-breaking fee of £198m in 2017, as talks for his return to the La Liga giants Barcelona broke down ahead of transfer deadline date set for September 2.

Barcelona made several attempts to reach an agreement for the forward, offering PSG a deal of £153 million with a proposal to pay off in two instalments within two years. In spite of that, the Ligue champions required that Nelson Semedo be included in the deal and Barca were not ready to let go of the right-back. 

To facilitate a deal between the two clubs, Neymar on his part showed how keen he was on rejoining his former team and offering to pay PSG £17.7m if they accepted to lower their demand. 

He had at the early stage of his request to return to Spain, told Barcelona that he would take a salary cut of £12 million if Barcelona signed him on. That reduction will bring his annual salary down from £36.8m to £24 million - that was what he was getting at Nou Camp before leaving. 

All those moves may sound good but are not enough to pull a string on PSG's sporting director Leonardo Araujo, who had said the club will only accept a deal for the player unless it is one that "suits everyone". Since the ambitious return to Spain has failed to materialise, it is understood the Brazilian has chosen to remain at the club for the rest of his contract and will be committing his best to the team.  

The 27-year-old did not feature in the team first two games to the start of the season. However, PSG has not been that unlucky spell for the striker, who has enjoyed two trophy-ladened seasons at Parc de Princes, winning back-to-back with the team the Ligue 1 title during which he scored in all competitions 34 goals in 37 appearances.