Barcelona Planning Swap Deal Involving $167M Target, Griezmann Amid Messi’s Exit Talk, Report Says

FC Barcelona are reportedly planning to revive interest in re-signing Neymar amid their recent setback that could see Lionel Messi leave the club.

Following Barcelona’s embarrassing 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League’s quarter-final, the club sacked manager Quique Setien and their captain Lionel Messi reportedly said he wants to leave the Catalans this summer, even though his current contract is until June 2021. Another report indicates Messi might not be leaving Barcelona anytime soon.

Due to the financial crisis infused by the coronavirus pandemic, Barcelona chief Josep Bartomeu had earlier said the La Liga side had given up on Neymar’s return this summer. Ahead of the ongoing transfer window, Barcelona had prioritized the signing of Neymar and Inter Milan forward Lautaro Martinez on Messi’s insistence. Bartomeu had also suggested that talks with Inter Milan over Martinez’s transfer had stopped due to the pandemic.

The Spanish publication SPORT reports that the Barcelona board believes Neymar is the only player who can make an impact immediately. Neymar, who has won three league titles with Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), scored 19 goals in 25 competitive matches in the 2019-20 campaign and overall, has netted 70 goals in 83 games for the French side.

Neymar left Barcelona in 2017 and moved to PSG for a world-record fee of $261 million. His goals tally shows he has not disappointed the club for the fee it had paid. But the player has been unhappy in Paris and wanted to return to Spain to reunite with Messi and Luis Suarez, with whom he had formed one of the dangerous frontlines in European soccer.

The SPORT report has also claimed that in order to bring Neymar back to Nou Camp, Barcelona will have to clear funds by offloading a few players this summer. The "Neymar operation" will not only help Barcelona financially but also revamp the first team after the Blaugrana ended the 2019-20 campaign without a trophy for the first time since 2007.

It is understood that PSG will not accept anything less than $167 million for Neymar, who has scored over 300 goals in his 11-year club career so far. The Spanish report has disclosed that Barcelona is also planning to convince PSG to accept Antoine Griezmann as a part of a swap deal for Neymar along with a sum of $70 million.

Griezmann, who moved from Atletico Madrid to Barcelona in the summer of 2019, has failed to bag a regular place in the first-team. There have been rumors about his differences with Barcelona captain Messi. The Frenchman scored 15 goals in 48 matches in his maiden season at Barcelona.