BOOST FOR PSG
Ligue 1 giants ready for Neymar return ahead of Champions League campaign
WITH the saga over his on-off move back to Barcelona now over, Neymar could return to action with Paris Saint-Germain this weekend.
The world’s most expensive player has had to come to terms with a third season in Ligue 1 after PSG and his former club failed to agree terms on a transfer before the transfer window shut on Sept 2.
Neymar has since been away on international duty for Brazil in two friendly matches in the USA, scoring one goal and making another in a 2-2 draw with Colombia and then coming on as a substitute in a 1-0 loss to Peru.
Those were his first appearances this season after the 27year-old was left out of PSG’s opening four league games amid the uncertainty over his future.
If he is passed fit after a long
trip back across the Atlantic, coach Thomas Tuchel may choose to select Neymar in today’s game against Strasbourg, the team against whom he suffered a fractured foot in a cup tie back in January.
PSG are already without Kylian Mbappe, who has a hamstring injury, as they prepare to start their Champions League campaign at home to Real Madrid next week. Edinson Cavani is also struggling for fitness.
Argentine striker Mauro Icardi is available after joining from Inter, but Tuchel may be tempted to turn to Neymar.
Neymar is likely to get a cold reception from the Parc des Princes crowd after saying during the summer that his best memory as a footballer was PSG’s humiliating 6-1 defeat by Barca at the Nou Camp in the Champions League in 2017.
“I can’t control how the fans will react,” said Tuchel. “But the more you talk about something the more it becomes a big thing.”
Neymar’s club and international colleague Thiago Silva said: “He knows that he has made mistakes, but he has no bad intentions. He is an incredible kid. I hope he has a great season.”
Even Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has had her say, urging Neymar to get his head down and help PSG finally succeed in Europe.
“We turned the Eiffel Tower red and white for him, in the colours of PSG,” she told magazine Tele
Loisirs. “Now my boy, we love you a lot, and you are going to have to work hard and win us the Champions League.”