Neymar’s departure from Barcelona is because he wanted to escape from the shadow of Lionel Messi. At least that’s the former Los Cules defender Jeremy Mathieu.
Neymar became hot news in the transfer market last summer after Paris Saint-Germain dared to redeem his contract in Barca worth 222 million euros. Neymar’s departure invites a lot of questions considering historically, PSG is far below Barca.
PSG has a lot of money to build a tough team, but Neymar has strengthened one of the best teams in the world today, namely Barca. Even so, there are major factors that eventually make Neymar go, namely Lionel Messi.
Neymar is recognized to be the best player of Brazil at the moment and one of the greatest in the world. But as long as it is under the shadow of Messi, Neymar will not be equal to the Argentine player or even Cristiano Ronaldo.
Therefore, PSG was chosen by Neymar as a club that can lead to the highest place, match or even exceed Messi and Ronaldo.
“At that time no one thought he was going to leave Barca, but that’s football, like that … it’s his decision,” Mathieu told EFE as quoted by FourFourTwo.
“I think he’s gone because he does not want to be under Leo anymore I think he wants to win the Ballon d’Or and he is happy now in Paris because he scored a lot of goals,” said Mathieu who now strengthens Sporting CP.