Barcelona attempted to sign Neymar from PSG at the start of the summer transfer window, according to reports, but their €80m offer was rejected.
It has been a disastrous summer for the Catalans, who saw club legend Lionel Messi leave on a free transfer and join PSG, after they were unable to afford to keep him.
Antoine Griezmann later followed Messi out the door to leave Barca with a heavily depleted attack, but Le10Sport reports that they began the window with very different intentions.
The French outlet says Barcelona sent PSG a €80m offer for Neymar at the start of the summer, which was quickly rejected by the French giants.
The Brazilian arrived in Paris in a world record €222m deal in 2017 and has been linked with a return several times since, but Barca’s alarming financial situation means they were in no position to make the move in the first place.
The report cites an interview Barcelona president Joan Laporta gave to Esport 3, where he admits: “at the time, we interpreted financial fair play (in La Liga) in a different way. If we had known, we would not have made an offer.”
In August, Laporta said in a press conference that Barcelona had debts of €1.35 billion euros and suffered losses of €481m last season.
As a result, their summer signings were mostly free transfers, such as Memphis Depay, Sergio Aguero, Erik Garcia and Luuk de Jong.
PSG had the last laugh, with Neymar now reunited with Messi in Paris in an all-star forward line that also includes Kylian Mbappe.
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