Eric Abidal wanted Neymar back at Barcelona ahead of Antoine Griezmann in 2019

Eric Abidal has revealed how close Neymar came to rejoining Barcelona in the summer of 2019.

The Frenchman left Barcelona last year having been sacked from his role as director of football.

He has now opened up on the deals that never came to pass during his time in the hotseat, and chief among them was a sensational return to the Nou Camp for the Brazilian two years ago.

However, the pursuit of Antoine Griezmann - not to mention the Paris Saint-Germain winger's ongoing legal battle with the Spanish club - scuppered a deal from coming to fruition.

'Ten days before the end of the transfer window, I went to Paris to talk with Leonardo (PSG's sporting director) and I was with my CEO, and we were talking about Neymar,' Abidal to the Telegraph.

'I think if the CEO goes to Paris Saint-Germain, it's because we can sign him. If we didn't sign Griezmann before, I think 100 per cent we could have re-signed Neymar because what we needed was a winger and when Neymar was in Barcelona he was amazing.

'This is not about which player is better, it was what I thought was the position we needed at the time. The team needed a real winger. The president decided to sign Griezmann.

'One of the arguments against Neymar was that he had a court case against the club, so it's not easy. They said he would have to stop the court process if he wanted to come back.

'That wasn't my problem because I was not at the club when that dispute happened. In my view, I could sign the player, but it didn't happen.'