Barcelona forward Neymar’s agent and father has openly suggested his son’s former club Santos have ‘mental diarrhea’. This is after the fall out from the 2013 transfer from Santos to Barcelona still rumbles on.
The 23 year old Neymar was due to sign a new contract with the Catalan club imminently but this has now been pushed back by his father to concentrate on his clients tax situation.
Despite scoring four of Barca’s five goals in their 5-2 win over Rayo Vallecano last weekend Neymar has been embroiled in a off the field tax battle as they try to smooth out this long-running judicial imbroglio.
Neymar da Silva Santos Sr said of the matter;
“We have three-year contract. We, that is my family, we are suffering a very large tax insecurity that affects the career planning. We need to finish these issues. How can we extend something without having a tax stability? What’s going on? Spain has to say if my company can work with Neymar Jr. has to define what is the positioning. We are seeing that several players are suffering tax penalties. Why should I anticipate a renewal if I have no legal certainty that supports us so we can work? I intend to wait, to be calm to make the best management for Neymar.”
Although Neymar does still have three years on his current contract, this hesitation to get a new deal signed has seen the door creek open for the likes of Manchester United and Paris St. Germain.
It was reported last week that United had near £130 million bid waved away by Barcelona in the summer. Moreover French newspaper ‘Le Parisien’ admitted there was interest from PSG in taking Neymar to the French capital.
The reason behind this hold up lies at the feet of Neymar’s former side Santos who filed a law-suit against their ex-forward who was reportedly in breach of a number of rules and regulations of FIFA during his move to Spain.
The penalty they’re asking for is a fee of €55 million and to prevent Neymar from playing for six months. This is when Neymar Sr. declared the Alvinegro of ‘thinking without intelligence’ and ‘having mental diarrhea’.
The player himself was not to be drawn into the case, who after the win over Rayo said;
“For me it’s past. Of course I’m very sorry, but do not want to talk about it.”
It is clear Louis Van Gaal’s team hold a very strong interest in the Brazilian and would pounce at the opportunity if it looked like he would leave the Camp Nou. Nevertheless, with Lionel Messi injured and the team still under a transfer embargo until January it is near on impossible to foresee anyone at Barcelona happy to let their Samba star go any time soon.
