Barca offered to delay salaries for Neymar return

Barcelona were so keen to bring Neymar back from Paris St Germain that the players were ready to accept delays to salary payments in order for the club to afford the Brazilian, defender Gerard Pique has revealed.

Barca spent the bulk of the last transfer window trying to lure Neymar back from PSG, two years after he left the Catalans for a world record transfer fee of Sh25.5b.

But the two clubs failed to reach an agreement before September’s transfer deadline.

The Catalans, who had already signed French forward Antoine Griezmann for Sh13.8b and Frenkie de Jong for Sh8.6b, were constricted in their pursuit for Neymar by UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations.

“We told (club president Josep Maria) Bartomeu that if it was necessary to delay payments in our contracts to meet Financial Fair Play regulations and sign Neymar we would do it,” Pique told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser on Thursday.

“We were ready to adjust our contracts. We weren’t going to contribute money, but we were going to make things easier by allowing some payments to be made in the second or third year instead of the first.”

Neymar sat out the start of the season while he waited for the transfer saga to end but returned to the team in September, scoring four goals in five Ligue 1 appearances.

The Brazilian is currently sidelined with a groin injury sustained on international duty with Brazil.