Barcelona Stars Offered to Alter Contracts to Get Neymar Back, Says Gerard Pique

Gerard Pique has said Barcelona players offered to change their wage structure in an attempt to get Neymar back to the Camp Nou in the summer.

It was common knowledge back in the summer that Neymar wanted to return to Barcelona two years on from his record-breaking £200 million move from the Camp Nou to Paris Saint-Germain.

The transfer never materialised, though, and the Brazilian has been reintegrated into the PSG side this season, netting four goals in five Ligue 1 games before picking up an injury while on international duty:

Money was always likely to be one of the key barriers to Neymar's return given PSG wanted to recoup the transfer fee they had paid for him. Barca had also already spent a combined £172 million on Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong.

It was reported the Spanish champions attempted to negotiate a players-plus-cash deal:

And Pique explained to Cadena Ser's El Larguero that Barca players also offered to change the way they were paid if it would aid the re-signing of Neymar by complying with UEFA's financial fair play rules (h/t Goal's Sacha Pisani):

"We didn't stump up money. What we said to the president was whether we could change our contracts because we knew there was a financial fair play issue. ... So we said to the president, rather than earn something in year one, we could earn it in year two or three or four.

"At the end of the day we want to go along with what the club is doing and if we can help the club, in this case avoiding a financial fair problem, we've got no problem in doing that.

"Rather than reducing our salary it was about finding a formula so that if the club wanted to sign Neymar they could. At the time they thought it was a good idea, but then other problems cropped up."

Per Joaquim Piera of Marca, Barca are planning to return for Neymar in 2020.

That is no surprise given how effective he was at the Camp Nou playing alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez:

During his previous spell at Barca between 2013 and 2017, the 27-year-old won two La Liga titles, the Copa del Rey three times and the 2014-15 UEFA Champions League.

Since he left for PSG, he has been unable to help the French giants break their European duck, while Barca have also underwhelmed in the competition since losing Neymar.

There is no guarantee Barcelona would become European champions again with Neymar back in the side, but his presence would help.

It is clear from Pique's latest comments that most of Barca's players were eager to have him back in the team, and it would be no surprise were Neymar to don the Blaugrana shirt again in the future.