Transfer Centre

Barcelona chief Oscar Grau insists they did "everything" to sign Neymar

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 19 September 2019

Barcelona chief executive Oscar Grau insists that the club "did everything possible" to sign Neymar this summer, but that Paris Saint-Germain did not want to do the deal.

Barcelona chief executive Oscar Grau has insisted that the club "did everything possible" to complete the signing of Neymar this summer.

The Brazilian's future was the most high-profile and longest-running saga of the transfer window as Barca tried to engineer a return to Camp Nou just two years after he had left for a world-record £200m fee.

No deal materialised despite Paris Saint-Germain confirming that they would be open to selling the 27-year-old if a suitable offer arrived, and Grau has now claimed that the Ligue 1 champions were to blame for the discussions breaking down.

"We did everything possible to sign him. We always tried in a viable way because we would have been delighted for him to come," Grau told reporters.

"If the parameters we set were met, it was sustainable. We offered alternatives to PSG, who rejected them. They didn't want to do the deal."

Neymar was booed on his return to the PSG side last weekend but produced a telling contribution with a 92nd-minute bicycle kick winner.