Santos awaits Neymar’s decision on renewing his contract with the São Paulo team; the contract is valid until June 30
Neymar is living out the last days of his contract with Santos, the club that the forward will officially play for until the end of June. In an interview on Wednesday (28/5), the player’s father, who shares his son’s name, maintained his doubts about the extension of the contract and said that the forward did not return to the club to play. “Neymar’s plan was to stay at Santos for five months to recover. If Neymar could play, then thank goodness. Since Santos needed him to play in the (Campeonato) Paulista, otherwise we would have had difficulty, we had to bring his entry onto the field earlier, which delayed the recovery process. Now, we are calm,” he said in the mixed zone of the Cícero de Souza Marques Municipal Stadium after Peixe’s 3-1 friendly defeat against RB Leipzig.
During the half-time break, Santos’ number 10 was emphatic when answering about the renewal negotiations: “I don’t know yet. I’m going to close all the questions. I won’t answer any more questions about this until the 12th (of June). I’ve already said that I don’t know yet, so it’s because I’m thinking about it. There’s no point in asking me again in three days because the answer will be the same. I’ll only decide on this after the 12th.” The date mentioned by Neymar refers to the day of Santos’ last game before the Brazilian Championship was suspended due to the FIFA Club World Cup. On that occasion, Peixe will face Fortaleza, at Castelão, in the 12th round of the national tournament.
“We need to know if Santos has the structure to accommodate Neymar. It’s not up to us to say if we have enough resources for that. Now, does Neymar have a market? There is a market (..) It will depend on him (Neymar), he will make the choices”, reinforced the striker’s father.
Neymar returned to Santos in January of this year, after terminating his contract with Al-Hilal, from Saudi Arabia. The contract signed by the player with Peixe is valid until June 30. Before returning to Brazil, the athlete underwent treatment for surgery on the cruciate ligament in his left knee, which kept him off the field for over a year. In São Paulo, injuries continue to plague him – this year there were two, both muscular. As a result, he only played 11 games this season, contributing three goals and three assists.
