Neymar Should Go to Paris Saint-Germain and Leave Messi’s Shadow
Lionel Messi is holding Neymar back at Barcelona. Despite all the benefits of playing with Messi, Neymar doesn’t have the freedom to really play his game while playing alongside the world’s best player.
Messi likes to cut inside from the right and occupy the center of the attack behind Luis Suárez, and this prevents Neymar from occupying this same zone where he can orchestrate the attack and score more goals. The counter argument to this is that Neymar and Messi display a free-flowing style of combination play that creates lots of goals, but Neymar always has to defer to Messi.
When Neymar plays with Brazil, he’s a team player just like he is with Barcelona, but Neymar doesn’t have to limit his involvement and impact like he does with Barcelona. As long as Neymar plays with Messi, he’ll have to mostly stay on the left side of the field and stay out of Messi’s way.The Brazilian has shown that he can play with another superstar and that he keeps a good attitude while deferring to another player, but now is the time to lead his own European club team. Anyone of Neymar’s ability would look to play for a big team where he can be the primary attacking weapon and lead the team. This doesn’t make Neymar selfish or greedy. Messi just turned 30 years old, and he will likely be playing at a world-class and elite level until he is 35. This would be five more years of Neymar toning down his impact and flair to defer to Messi.
Going to Paris Saint-Germain would be an excellent move for Neymar because he would be able to be the Number 10 for a team full of other elite talents. PSG has an outstanding group of defenders and great midfielders would be provide Neymar with a complete team, and this sort of switch would be great for European football. It would distribute more of the truly elite talent away from just two teams: Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Neymar should transfer to PSG for his own interests. At PSG, Neymar has a better chance of winning the Ballon d’Or and continuing to improve his game. As long as Neymar plays with Messi, Neymar can’t play the Number 10 role, and he has less touches on the ball. Neymar is a Number 10, and he can’t truly play this role while being married to the left side of the field at Barcelona.
Leaving Messi was inevitable for the Brazilian. Messi is still in his prime, and staying at Barcelona for five more years as Messi’s second in command would be a bad choice for Neymar. Neymar is much better than he gets credit for, but no one is really going to know that as long as he has to only show 70% of his ability while playing with Messi.