Barcelona open the door for Neymar transfer as club chief admits he is 'a clear option'

Barcelona hero Eric Abidal has opened up on the club’s pursuit of Neymar in his role as technical secretary.

The Brazil forward failed to secure a move back to the Nou Camp in the summer despite informing PSG of his desire to do so, but it could still happen in the future.

Abidal has outlined why the move didn’t come to fruition in the summer, and why it could go ahead next time around.

The ex-France international told Mundo Deportivo when asked about Neymar: “A top player, who has a Barca philosophy and who is performing at a high level, will always be an option.

“From there, at the sport level we can make decisions, but the whole financial issue, there are things that you can reach and others that you cannot.

“The future will say.

“If he continues at this level, because the season is very long, I will not say that it will be option number 1 but it can be a clear option.”

News emerged last month that Barcelona players were so keen to see the 27-year-old return that they offered to alter their own contracts.

Barcelona were not able to afford Neymar after spending £174million combined on Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong, but Gerard Pique revealed a plan that he and his team-mates came up with.

He told Spanish radio station Cadena SER: “We didn’t stump up money.

“What we said to the president was whether we could change our contracts because we knew there was a Financial Fair Play issue.

“So we said to the president, rather than earn something in year one, we could earn it in year two or three or four.

“At the end of the day we want to go along with what the club is doing and if we can help the club, in this case avoiding a Financial Fair Play problem, we’ve got no problem in doing that.

“Rather than reducing our salary it was about finding a formula so that if the club wanted to sign Ney they could.

“At the time they thought it was a good idea, but then other problems cropped up.”

source: express.co.uk