PSG hero ready to take centre stage as French champs battle for European glory against ruthless Bayern in high-voltage Champions League final tomorrow night.
PSG's Neymar during a recent training session. Pic/AFP
PSG's fortunes in the Champions League in recent years have been inextricably linked to those of Neymar, even before they bought the Brazilian for a world record fee, and if he maintains his recent form in tomorrow’s final it may make the difference against formidable Bayern Munich.
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Long wait
At 28, Neymar is desperate to get his hands on another Champions League winner’s medal, five years after he won the competition with Barcelona. If he can play the starring role in a PSG victory, he will perhaps be accepted as the best player in the world, even with no Ballon d’Or in this pandemic year. It would be good timing for PSG and their Qatari owners, it would validate their decision to pay 222 million euros to take him from Barcelona in 2017.
Neymar’s first two years in Paris were one long melodrama. A brilliant player who was happy at Barcelona but had been eager to step out of Messi’s shadow, he never appeared at ease in his new surroundings. By the summer of 2019 it was no secret he wanted to leave. But then it became clear the transfer back to Barcelona would not happen. He accepted his situation and knuckled down.
Now he is central to everything PSG are doing. He is happy too, especially alongside Kylian Mbappe. “We are more or less the same age and we have a laugh together off the pitch. We hit it off straight away,” says Mbappe, 21. “We respect each other, we have a lot of fun. We are also less focused on ourselves now and more worried about the other guys around us, because we understand that we need everyone else to be able to win. We can’t do it with just the two of us.”
Finding form
Neymar scored in both legs against Borussia Dortmund in the Last 16 and cried afterwards. He was excellent against Atalanta in the quarter-finals and magnificent against RB Leipzig in the semi-finals, even if he did not score in either game. PSG will hope Neymar—who has scored 70 times altogether in 84 matches for them—has been saving his next goal for the final. “I hope that the good lord will help him to score on Sunday and us to win,” said his compatriot Thiago Silva.
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