Injury. Neymar's relief: "God saved me from something serious"
Round of 16: Barcelona - PSG, Atalanta - Real Madrid, Atlético - Chelsea and Sevilla - Dortmund
Analysis.The Spanish rivals in the Champions League round of 16: it could have been much worse
Neymar Jr.
fled the Camp Nou in August 2017. Lawyers appeared at the club's offices, suitcases in hand, and paid the 222 million euros of the footballer's clause necessary to join PSG.
There was no other farewell than that.
Neymar said goodbye to Barcelona after having won a Champions League in Berlin in 2015, the year of the trident and the triplet that led
Bartomeu
to sweep in the presidential elections.
And he did it saddened by not having achieved the recognition that he wanted so much.
In his head, that night in which, unleashed, he caused the incredible comeback against PSG on March 8, 2017. The Catalans lifted the aberrant 4-0 in the first leg with a 6-1 in the return, settled in the added with the miracle of
Sergi Roberto
.
The photo, memorable, was for
Messi
.
The Argentine, fist raised, levitated before the public.
The focus avoided Neymar, who decided to move away from Rosario to become the best footballer in the world.
Now, instead, he desperately seeks it.
For now, it will be only as a rival.
The round of 16 draw of the Champions League brought a cross between Barcelona and PSG that forces many of its protagonists to face their demons.
Because the Catalans will have time to think about what they did with the 222 million received.
What should be reconstruction was in reality degradation.
The money was invested in the two most expensive signings in its history,
Coutinho
and
Dembélé
.
The first has caused the same indifference in his two stages at the club.
The second is still stuck in the infirmary.
Despite the fact that before Neymar's departure the Barça team had already begun to show signs of exhaustion (the aforementioned 4-0 at the Parc des Princes or the subsequent 3-0 defeat in Turin still with Luis Enrique on the bench), gangrene was already uncontrollable with several of the most depressing episodes in the European history of Barcelona: Rome, Liverpool or 2-8 in Lisbon at the end of the journey.
Neymar, despite growing in his football and accumulating exhibitions such as those of the present Champions League (six goals and an assist in five games), in which he himself dragged his team towards a classification questioned, has not achieved his main objectives .
Individual awards are still elusive.
This year's FIFA The Best nominated
Lewandowski
, big favorites, but also Messi and
Cristiano Ronaldo
as finalists
.
And the Brazilian has not yet been able to win the Champions League again, for which so much money has been invested by the Qatari royal family.
At least, with the help of
Kylian Mbappé
, pending like Neymar to renew a contract that ends in 2022, he led PSG to the last final of the Champions League.
There they were defeated by Bayern.
On February 16, at the Camp Nou
It will be on February 16 when Neymar faced Messi's Barcelona for the first time at the Camp Nou.
As long as the ankles do not return to torture the former Santos player, who at least received with some relief the first diagnosis of the injury suffered last Sunday after a kick from
Thiago Mendes
, from Olympique de Lyon.
"Neymar's clinical and radiological evaluation after sprained left ankle is reassuring," said the party, who pointed out that the striker would undergo further tests in 48 hours.
"It could be worse, but once again God saved me from something serious ...", reacted the forward, much more mystical.
Barcelona's reunion with Neymar a year and a half after he tried unsuccessfully to return to the Barça club -without any of the parties appearing to care about the battle they still have in court-, will not be the only event that will shake the duel .
Rafinha Alcántara
also plays for PSG
, whom Bartomeu's board of directors gave to the Parisian club on the last day of the last winter market.
The entity chaired by
Nasser Al-Khelaïfi
paid nothing
.
Only three million euros in variables were agreed.
In the memory are all those slamming doors received by Barça in the failed signings of Thiago Silva (now at Chelsea), Marquinhos, Verratti, Rabiot (now at Juventus) or Di María.
PSG coach
Thomas Tuchel
has been unable to tear off the suspect tag despite having to deal with egos in the Parisian dressing room.
In the French league, even by a single point, they have been advanced by Lille and Lyon.
Barcelona, who will already have a president in the tie, may already know what Messi will do with his life.
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Ousmane Dembélé
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