The closest Man United got to Neymar was when he outplayed them for PSG in the Champions League group stage in 2020.
Neymar has lifted the European Cup, struck the winning penalty that finally elevated Brazil to the gold medal podium at an Olympics, graced three World Cups in three different continents and he remains the game’s record transfer.
Yet many will pause, hesitate or demur about mentioning Neymar in the same breath as Brazil’s immortals. He could and should have been in that pantheon but he continues to disappoint.
Neymar may have felt railroaded into joining Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 but he still downgraded from Barcelona for a meretricious club that is now counting the cost of theirgálácticoera. Neymar and Messi are gone and Kylian Mbappe is going, sooner or later.
Some did their utmost to treat the notion of his joining Manchester United seriously a few months back and Erik ten Hag did not discredit the rumours. Call it Dutch diplomacy.
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Ten Hag used a stock phrase: “When we have news we will tell you.” Those unfamiliar with it and incapable of conducting research ran with that as if a Ԁєɑł was imminent. There was also the tenuous connection of the Qatari Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani’s offer to buy United. The PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi is an associate of Sheikh Jassim’s.
Neymar has maintained his Gulf connection by upping sticks for Saudi Arabia, joining Al-Hilal. The Saudi Pro League now boasts Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema yet a game-changing transfer continues to elude them.
Agency sources say the Saudi Pro League is also targeting players in their prime. Ruben Neves and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic are among the 20-somethings who have taken the plunge but those players linked with marquee moves that never materialised. So they took the money and ran.
At 31, Neymar is hardly a busted flush and his Fred Astaire feet in Brazil’s World Cup quarter-final against Croatia in December was one of the goals of the tournament. Yet if he was not damaged goods, Neymar would still be playing in the Champions League next season.
PSG have had their fill of Neymar and he comes with more baggage than Lizzo. There was a shallow pool of European clubs with the financial clout to take Neymar off PSG’s hands and none came calling.
Neymar found himself in a comparable position to Ronaldo last summer. No matter where Jorge MєɴԀes touched down, he failed to turn heads. AC Milan, Napoli, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Chelsea etc. None wanted Ronaldo. So he ditched MєɴԀes and settled for Saudi Arabia.
Neymar has not played for PSG since February, the month he enjoys lengthy annual leave almost annually. So his stock has subsided significantly since the World Cup in Qatar and his salary demand is too steep for anywhere but Saudi Arabia.
The closest United got to Neymar
The United football director John Murtough engaged with the director of football for the Saudi Pro League, Michael Emenalo, having negotiated the sale of another Brazilian 30-something in Alex Telles. Murtough was informed the Saudis have 10 years of money to fund signings.
Yesteryear, Ed Woodward, who infamously flew via EasyJet to Barcelona to gauge the possibility of signing Neymar in 2015, viewed the rise of the Chinese Super League as an opportunity to flog any unwanted players to that particular retirement home. Marouane Fellaini was the only United player who headed east and already Eric Bailly could join Telles in the Middle East.
United are unconcerned by the Saudi Pro League as a rival, echoing comments made by the Premier League chief executive Richard Masters last week. United have paraded Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani and Cristiano Ronaldo in the last seven years and Odion Ighalo, also in his 30s, arrivedfromChina.
But there has been a shift in strategy. United insist they would not compete for players seeking transfers towards the єɴԀ of their career. Even one as garlanded as Neymar.
