Barca President Joan Laporta, already together with his team at Seville ahead of Barcelona’s Copa del Rey final against Athletic Club Bilbao, was surrounded by journalists and fans at the airport, and was hurled a of questions about prospective transfer business in the summer, COPE reports.
The first question was, as expected, about Lionel Messi’s continuity with the club, on which Laporta remained optimistic. There then followed numerous inquiries about Norwegian Erling Haaland, who has been linked with the club for some weeks now. To that, Laporta subtly hinted that he will do everything properly according to plan in that regard as well.
Suddenly, a fan interrupted during the Haaland episode and told the president his interest was in neither Haaland nor Kylian Mbappe but wanted Barcelona to sign Neymar back from Paris Saint Germain instead, which had been constant, hot topic of discussion in Barcelona.
After the fan expressed his keen desires to Laporta, the president calmly replied: “I like him too.”
Neymar has long been linked with a return to Barcelona almost every transfer window since his eadical departure to France back in 2017. Lately however, there has been plenty of speculation about a reunion with Lionel Messi, after the 29-year old stated he wants to play with the Argentine again, since Messi’s contract continuance with Camp Nou is also up in the air and PSG were among the clubs anxiously poised to make a move for him.
Up until very recently, Neymar seemed to have frozen renewal talks with the Parisiens, but suddenly out of the blue he seems to have dispelled the rumors with his latest hint that he will stay at PSG after all a few days ago.
With Laporta’s statement to the press however, is it too early to rule out any more twists in the tale? Only the summer window will tell.
Credit: Football Tribe Malaysia
