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- Neymar has been linked with a return to FC Barcelona but La Liga won’t be rolling out the red carpet if he does leave Paris Saint-Germain.
- Injuries and off-the-field problems have marred Neymar’s stay in France, but Barça is apparently desperate to re-sign him as Lionel Messi misses him.
- Javier Tevas, the La Liga boss, does not feel the same as Messi, though. "His behavior isn’t good for the competition," Tebas said.
- A British politician called Neymar a "clown" during last year’s FIFA World Cup tournament, the player lashed out at a fan after a French Cup loss, and he was recently accused of sexual assault — an allegation he denies.
- "Everyone will talk about whether he did this or did that," Tebas said. "I’d prefer he didn’t return to La Liga."
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The president of La Liga doesn’t want Neymar to return to FC Barcelona because he believes the player’s image would be bad for the league.
Neymar left Barça for a world record sum of $261 million in 2017, joining Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1. Injuries and off-the-field problems have marred his stay in France, but that has not perturbed Barcelona as the Spanish club is apparently desperate to re-sign him.
Should Neymar return, it would no doubt please Lionel Messi who is said to miss his former teammate. But Javier Tebas, the La Liga boss, would feel differently.
"I’d prefer that Neymar didn’t return to Barça," Tebas said on the Onda Cero’s "El Transistor" radio show, according to Sport.
"We always want the best players but in the case of Neymar, his behavior isn’t good for the competition. In the end, all everyone will talk about is whether he did this or did that. We’ve worked hard to maintain the values of La Liga and we don’t want to change that image."
Neymar has won back-to-back Ligue 1 championships but attracted negative headlines in April for lashing out at a fan who reportedly told him to "learn how to play" after a shock French Cup defeat. Last month, he was accused of sexual assault by a 26-year-old woman. He denies this allegation.
"He could be a great player but his behavior is very important to the values of the competition," Tebas said. "If he isn’t a good role model off the pitch I’d prefer he didn’t return to La Liga because he wouldn’t be a good example [to others]."
Tebas is not the only prominent figure in soccer to be critical of Neymar. The 27-year-old had previously been linked with a move to Real Madrid but a former Real manager, Vicente del Bosque, fumed at the transfer rumor, saying he’d rather see Neymar’s teammate Kylian Mbappe move to Madrid because the Brazilian acts like a child.
The player, at one point the most valuable athlete in his sport, has slumped to the 17th most valuable according to a recent CIES Football Observatory study.
Last year, Neymar famously attracted the social media wrath of a British politician as Johnny Mercer called him a "clown" because of all his play-acting in last summer’s FIFA World Cup tournament.
He is contracted at PSG until 2022.
See Also:
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- Signing Kylian Mbappe would cause more problems at Liverpool FC than it would solve, according to people close to the club
- The captain of the US women’s soccer team said she’s ‘not going to the f—— White House’ if the team wins the World Cup
Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Alan Dawson)