Neymar's reported nod to PSG in €222 mn​ deal causes huge stir, but is it really happening?

Barcelona vice-president Jordi Mestre told a press conference on Tuesday, "At 200%, Neymar will not leave the club this summer."

IANS

New Delhi: Barcelona forward Neymar Jr's reported agreement with Paris Saint Germain over a summer transfer in whopping EUR 222m deal might have shaken up the entire football fraternity but is the news just a rumour like last summer or are we on brink of witnessing a 'record' transfer deal taking place?

Neymar's native Brazilian sports channel Esporte Interativo report that the Brazil skipper has agreed terms with the French giants PSG ahead of a potential world record £195million deal, and since then, the news has been spreading with lightning speed.

The believability factor of these rumours are so strong that even FC Barcelona had to come out and release a statement saying that they are 200% sure that Brazilian will at the dispsal next season.

Vice-president Jordi Mestre told a press conference on Tuesday, "At 200%, Neymar will not leave the club this summer.

"This morning I read that the PSG denied it flatly. There is no reason to change the relationship between clubs."

It has also been understood that PSG, responding to L'Equipe's querry on the reliability of the news, said that they are not about to star in another episode of the ‘Neymar show’ just like last year and indicated that the asking price remains out of the question (even for them).

PSG's briefing on the mater surely suggests that even considering their spending prowess, the buy-out clause still stands between them and Neymar. Though they refused to rule out their interest in the player, it is the financial difficulty of the deal that makes this transfer unlikely.

The only way a deal could possibly be realised is if the French club decides to offload Marco Verrati, who has long been a target of the Spanish giants but PSG's valuation of him (£88million) is what has kept them away from signing the Italian midfielder.

If the midfielder becomes a part of this 'mega transfer deal', PSG would only have to shell out £108million in order to make president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi's dream of fielding one of the world's top three players at the club, a reality.