Neymar 'to demand EXTRA £1MILLION a week' to stay at PSG (The Times)

  /  arrowhead

Neymar has reportedly demanded an extra £1million a week to stay at PSG. Real Madrid have earmarked the 26-year-old as the long-term replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo. And according to the Sunday Times , Neymar has told his club they must treble his weekly wages to keep him in Paris.

Brazilian striker Neymar has asked Paris Saint-Germain for a pay rise as a condition for staying at the Qatar-owned club for a second season. The player’s father is understood to have proposed that PSG improve his son’s financial terms amid Real Madrid’s efforts to bring him back to Spanish football.

PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and sporting director Antero Henrique flew to Brazil last week, ostensibly to attend a presentation at Neymar’s charitable institute. According to a PSG source, the pair held discussions about the forward’s future at the club he joined just eight months ago for a record transfer fee of nearly £200m, and a basic salary of more than £264.5m over five years. 

Neymar’s debut season ended last month when he fractured a metatarsal. The 26-year-old is said to have flown back to Brazil for surgery amid threats that he would not return to France for a second campaign with PSG, who were recently knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid.

Madrid have been openly courting Neymar for several months, with the European champions’ president Florentino Perez using December’s Ballon d’Or award ceremony to publicly pitch for his services. 

“Being in Madrid would make it easier to win the Ballon d’Or,” said Perez. “Real Madrid is a club which gives all you need as a big player. Everybody knows that I already wanted to sign him at one point.”

Madrid’s renewed pursuit of the Brazilian has come during a season pockmarked by evidence of Neymar’s discontent in Paris. There has been on- and off-field tension between the forward and leading goalscorer Edinson Cavani, whom the Brazil international wanted to supplant from penalty and free-kick duties. 

Neymar complained about coach Unai Emery’s tactics, man management and refusal to allow him to skip certain matches. On more than one occasion, the forward unilaterally declared himself unfit to play. PSG have stated that they will not sell a player who they have made made central to Qatar’s ambitions of winning the Champions League.

Related: Paris Saint-Germain Neymar
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