By Andrew Warshaw
August 4 – Within hours of completing his world record move to Paris St Germain, Brazilian superstar Neymar insisted he did not leave Barcelona because he was in Lionel Messi’s shadow but that he wanted to “write history”.
“No, quite the contrary,” the Brazilian answered at a packed press conference when asked if playing second fiddle to Messi had prompted him to leave.
“One of my motivations to play for Barcelona was to play alongside Lionel Messi, he was my role model. There was no pressure at all there, only during the first week at Barcelona where I was nervous. After that first week, I was relaxed. To play with the best is very easy because every player wants to play with the best in the world to win titles together. But now I’m here at PSG and I want to help my team-mates in the best way and win titles. We have great potential to be the greatest club in the world.”
Neymar is moving to a country where the quality of league football is a poor shadow of that in the country he left. But he said all the right things sitting alongside the club’s Qatari owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
“There are no easy games here. I’m very happy to be another Brazilian to play for a great club in a great country. I want to write history at PSG, this is the only reason (for coming). Our biggest challenge is the Champions League.”
Without of course mentioning his eye-watering salary, Neymar believes Barca’s fans should understand his motives and said he was disappointed by the adverse reaction of some Catalan supporters.
“I have done nothing bad. I think every player should be allowed to stay or leave a club. You are not obligated to remain at a club, if you wish to leave then the player has that right. It was one of the most difficult decisions of my life.”
For his part Al-Khelaifi, who disclosed the club paid Neymar’s buyout clause rather than the player himself, said that in one fell swoop, PSG’s value had sky-rocketed.
“Before Neymar the value of the club was $1 billion, now it is $1.5 billion,” he said. “Our ambition is to win the Champions League, that is always there.”
Commenting on the €222 million fee, he added: “Today it is expensive but in two or three years? We will definitely make more money. This is the power of PSG. It is an amazing transfer.”
Asked to comment on suggestions PSG might again fall foul of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules, he replied: “We will be very transparent with Financial Fair Play. We are working very transparently with UEFA. We don’t care about speculation in the media. We care that what we are doing is transparent and completely legal.”
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