Was selling Neymar the worst deal in Barca’s history?

For many of us, Barcelona are the greatest club side we’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing.

And while most of that credit goes to Pep Guardiola, it’s easy to overlook the fact Barca’s unparalleled status continued on with Tito Vilanova, Luis Enrique, and even Ernesto Valverde.

Part of that, particularly under Enrique, was down to Neymar, and it’s becoming increasingly clear to how much an extent, with the now PSG number 10 taking his side to back-to-back semi-finals as his former club slide out of the picture.

Barcelona, despite a second half of the season upturn in form under Ronald Koeman, and the re-appointment of their most successful president, Joan Laporta, remain a mess, and most of their troubles can be traced back to the Neymar sale. 

But where does his departure rank amongst the club's worst-ever business? We find out...

Luis Figo to Real Madrid for €62 million, 2000

©Getty / Getty Images

Figo had made the team his own, and lifted Barcelona to the top of the game, but just as everything was looking up, along came Florentino Perez, using Figo as the cornerstone of his Galactico project.

Figo went on to lift a Champions League with Madrid, something he never did at Barcelona, while the Catalans failed to win a league title until Figo’s fifth and final year in the capital, finally returning to the top of the game with the arrival of Ronaldinho.

Ronaldo to Inter Milan for €27 million, 1997

©Getty / ETSUO HARA

Ronaldo’s move from PSV exceeded every already high expectation, pumping in an astonishing 47 goals in 49 games, with perhaps the most famous of which leaving Sir Bobby Robson with his hands on his head in sheer shock.

Former president Josep Lluís Núñez’s legacy will always be attached to the day he let Ronaldo slip through his fingers, with O Fenômeno going on to stun everyone with his exploits at Inter, and particularly at the World Cup with Brazil.

Neymar to PSG for €222 million, 2017

©Getty / AFP Contributor

It came against Neymar’s current club, PSG, in 2017, when the Brazilian was the inspiration for one of sport’s greatest ever comebacks. Scoring the fourth and fifth before assisting the sixth, Neymar’s performance in the 6-1 turnaround against PSG should have gone down in history, but instead, Lionel Messi somehow got most of the credit.

The only person more annoyed by Neymar was PSG’s president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who knew the only way to get Barca back was in the transfer market, and boy did he succeed.

Splitting up one of the best forward lines in football history with Neymar, Messi and Luis Suarez, PSG paid a ludicrous price, but it’s one Barcelona completely failed to re-invest, with Phillippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele objective failures in replacing Neymar.

Neymar probably could have been convinced to stay, and later regretted his move, sitting out training to try and force a transfer back to Spain, but it’s fair to say that Barca still haven’t recovered from his departure, and they may never do so.