Neymar claims that Barcelona owe him €44m

Paris Saint-Germain and Brazil star Neymar has claimed that his former club Barcelona owe him €44m according to Marca. The relationship between the Catalans and Neymar has been fractious ever since he left for the French capital in the summer of 2017, but things are taking a rather dramatic turn more recently.

The forward’s lawyers presented an appeal against the sentence brought last June by a court in Barcelona that ordered the footballer to pay €6.7m to the club. Neymar wants the high court to order Barca to pay €43,650,000 euros that the club reneged on as a renewal bonus when the Brazilian unilaterally left the club upon PSG’s payment of his release clause. Barcelona only paid him until he left.

Now, the matter is for the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia to decide. “The club completely dismisses the player’s claim, which claimed the payment of €43.6m and estimates a large part of the claim presented by Barca, by virtue of which the player has to return €6.7m to the club,” the club said last June.

All this litigation and trouble has its origin in the payment of a €26m, agreed by club and player, when Neymar renewed his contract until 2021, but was blocked by Barcelona when the player left for PSG in the summer of 2017.

Neymar, widely considered to be one of the world’s best footballers, joined Barcelona from his hometown club Santos in 2013. He spent four seasons in Catalonia, forming a pivotal part of the lethal MSN strike-force alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez and winning two LaLiga titles, three Copa del Reys, the Spanish Super Cup, the Champions League and the Club World Cup.