‘Neymar faces fight to win over PSG fans’

Neymar faces a fight to win over the PSG supporters after his proposed return to Barcelona fell through, says French football expert Jonathan Johnson.

Neymar wanted to re-join Barcelona two years after leaving, and the Spanish side were in talks with PSG over bringing him back to the Nou Camp.

However, the deal broke down after the French champions refused to lower their asking price, despite Neymar’s willingness to contribute £17.7m towards sealing the deal.

The Brazilian forward is yet to play for PSG this season but their fans have already displayed derogatory banners towards him at games – and Johnson says repairing their relationship will be tough.

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He told Sky Sports News: “I think the hardest thing in terms of reintegration at PSG will be with the fans, as opposed to his team-mates.

“The likes of Kylian Mbappe and Marco Verratti have always been very clear in the fact that they remain close to Neymar. It’s not like he’s completely alienated from the players.

“Thomas Tuchel has also been very clear about how he would love to be able to call on Neymar again in the future – it looks like he’s now going to get his wish.

“Perhaps there’ll be a few issues in terms of fitness, at least for the first month. He’s going to be quite rusty considering he hasn’t played since June.

“But it seems the fans are going to be harder for him to win over after their behaviour towards him earlier this season.”

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Neymar has now travelled to Miami to join the Brazil squad ahead of their fixtures against Colombia and Peru, and Johnson says he is going to have to bounce back after his “dream” move failed to materialise.

“It was a big disappointment for him. He’d had his heart set on this move pretty much all summer,” said Johnson.

“Reluctantly he had to give up on it over the weekend and has now set off to join the Brazilian squad, knowing that his dream move is not going to happen until at least next summer in all likelihood.

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“He’s coming to terms with the fact he’s going to remain a PSG player for the course of this season. He’ll have a Champions League ban to contend with and will have to get used to setting new objectives for the coming season.”