I’ll write my Neym into history
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL
PSG V BAYERN MUNICH
Tomorrow 8pm
NEYMAR is on a mission to make history by firing Paris Saint-Germain to European glory in Lisbon.
The Brazilian superstar can add another remarkable chapter to his stellar career when PSG face Bayern Munich in the Champions League final tomorrow night.
PSG’s billionaire owners Qatar Sports Investments spent a world-record £200million in 2017 on signing Neymar, 28, from Barcelona with the specific intention of winning the Champions League.
But while he has helped PSG dominate in France, landing the biggest prize in club football has eluded them.
Neymar has won three league titles and the Coupe de France twice in Paris, as well as a Treble, and was Ligue 1 player of the year in his first season, but, in an exclusive interview, he said that winning the Champions League was what he was taken there to do.
Neymar, who helped Thomas Tuchel’s men reach the final for the first time with a dazzling display in the 3-0 win over RB Leipzig in the semis, believes he has reached the peak of his powers at the right moment.
He said:
“The semifinal was a very good performance – but nobody remembers who wins semi-finals.
“That is over now. Bayern are going to prove a big test and we will be ready. They have many good players but we are also at a high level and I feel I am playing at my best. “The owners have a big project and part of that is to be considered the best in Europe. We have never been closer but must stay focused.” Neymar, who has scored 61 goals in 101 games for Brazil, won Europe’s top prize with Barcelona in 2015 but was banned for three games – reduced to two on appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport – by UEFA in 2019 after abusing match officials following PSG’s home defeat by Manchester United saw them crash out in the last 16.
It meant he missed the start of this season’s competition but he intends to end it with the trophy, having been cleared to face Bayern despite breaking Covid-19 protocols by swapping shirts with Marcel Halstenberg following the semi-finals.
Neymar, who captained Brazil to Olympic gold in 2016, knows inspiring PSG to a first Champions League could lead to the Ballon d’Or.
The ultimate individual award has been cancelled this year but Neymar said: “Messi and Ronaldo have dominated it because over the past 10 years they have not been from this planet. It would be an honour to win it.
“But it comes from what you achieve on the field. Winning the Champions League is special. To win it with PSG would be making history and that is what I came here to do.”