Neymar would take a pay cut to reunite with Barcelona

Throughout the summer transfer window, Neymar has been angling aggressively for a move from PSG to Barcelona. He would reportedly be willing to take a significant salary slash in order to make that dream move materialize.

When healthy last season, Neymar was in his usual megastar form for PSG, scoring 15 goals with seven assists in 17 Ligue 1 appearances with an added five goals and two assists in his six Champions League games. But despite his domestic success at PSG, the club’s Champions League collapse in the second leg against Premier League disappointments Manchester United, in which Neymar was injured, have likely left a sour taste in the Brazilian’s mouth.

Neymar has done his best to leave PSG this summer to return to Barcelona, just two years after making a record-breaking 222 million euro move to join the Ligue 1 giants. Initially, Neymar did this to step out of Lionel Messi’s shadow, but now he would like to rejoin Messi and Luis Suarez on a team that has since added Philippe Coutinho, Antoine Griezmann, and Ousmane Dembele.

Prying Neymar from PSG has many obstacles, but the forward is willing to make one key concession in order to get his wish. According to respected La Liga reporter Guillem Balague at BBC, Neymar would be willing to cut his salary from 38 million euros a year to 23 million euros a year in order to facilitate a move to Barcelona.

That would be a huge lift for Barcelona in making this deal happen, and Balague reports that Barca wants this blockbuster reunion to happen, partly due to the players in the locker room who are still quite fond of Neymar.

But the biggest issue has always been PSG. They want to recoup as much of that 222 million euro price as possible, and they prioritize cash over players. Barcelona, however, just bought Griezmann for more than 100 million euros, meaning they can really only afford player swaps. Coutinho, Ivan Rakitic, and other big names have been offered, with Dembele’s possible inclusion being debatable.

Neymar taking a salary cut helps ease the burden on Barcelona making a player swap because they wouldn’t have to offload as many players to make the wage budget work. It’s unclear if that would be enough, but a 15 million euro pay cut is nothing to scoff at, even if Neymar would still be taking home 23 million euros on salary alone.

It’s obvious that Neymar wants this deal to happen more than anyone, and if Barcelona are willing to make the risky sacrifices necessary to appease an unsurprisingly stingy PSG, this deal could very well happen. And while PSG are playing hardball, it’s doubtful they’d want to deal with a disgruntled Neymar for a full season, especially if it causes friction that prevents them from locking up Kylian Mbappe over the long-term with Real Madrid quietly lurking.