Eric Abidal has revealed how close Barcelona came to re-signing Neymar from PSG in 2019.

Barca's former technical secretary said that he wanted to bring Neymar back to the club at the time.

“Ten days before the end of the transfer window, I went to Paris to talk with Leonardo (PSG's sporting director) and I was with my CEO, and we were talking about Neymar," said Abidal.

“I think if the CEO goes to Paris Saint-Germain, it's because we can sign him. If we didn't sign Griezmann before, I think 100 per cent we could have resigned Neymar because what we needed was a winger and when Neymar was at Barcelona he was amazing.

"This is not about which player is better, it was what I thought was the position we needed at the time. The team needed a real winger. The president decided to sign Griezmann."

He also said: “One of the arguments against Neymar was that he had a court case against the club, so it's not easy.

“They said he would have to stop the court process if he wanted to come back. That wasn't my problem because I was not at the club when that dispute happened. In my view, I could sign the player, but it didn't happen."