Barcelona: Lawyers for Brazilian footballer Neymar and Spanish champions Barcelona unsuccessful on Friday in their offer to avoid a multi-million-dollar court battle over a tangled contact debate.
A court administrator informed news reporter that the hearing which is open to the public would embark on later on Friday. “It is going to court,” Barcelona lawyer Josep Vives talked to news reporter outside the court after the closed-door harmonizing talks had fall down.
The case rotates around a decision by Neymar, the world´s most costly footballer, to leave Barcelona in 2017 and get together with Paris Saint-Germain in remarkable coup for the French club.
The move exasperate the Spanish giants who filed a protest for breach of commitment against the 27-year-old superstar who had guaranteed loyalty to Barcelona by signing a new deal just one year earlier.
Brazilian player Neymar jr reached in Barcelona on Thursday ahead of the hearing which was set for Friday but lawyers restricted later he was not at court.
Neymar´s upset transfer to PSG for a world record €222 million ($250 million at the time) came less than a year later he wrote a contract that would have kept him at the Spanish club until 2021.
Similar completing a lawsuit, Barcelona declined to pay him €26 million, which were part of his contract renovation bonus.
Brazilian player Neymar Jr quickly hit back with a lawsuit demanding remittance of the bonus in full.
The young player Neymar received first payout and was to have received other payment in instalments over the course of his new contract.
Neymar immediately fulfil a countersuit demanding payment of the €26 million with interest.
El Mundo daily shared that the case is being closely watched by the Spanish tax authorities who are eager to know whether Neymar, who was a tax inhabitant in 2017, paid his dues on both the bonus and his transfer to PSG.
In past month March, Naymar´s public relations agency, NR Sports, confessed the tax authorities had requested documents but emphasized the player was not the subject of a new tax inspection in Spain.
Neymar jr has been beset by legal problems since his arrival in Europe in 2013 following his move to the Catalan club from Brazil´s Santos.