Neymar is increasingly unlikely to leave Paris Saint-Germain and is instead expected to commit his long-term future to the French giants, with sporting director Leonardo confirming that new contract talks are ‘on the right track’.

The Brazil international is into the final 18 months of the five-year contract he signed when he initially joined PSG from Barcelona in a world record €222m transfer in 2017. But while he has often been linked with a move back to Camp Nou, most heavily in 2019, he now looks set to stay put.

“We are on the right track. The contract is not yet signed. We arrive at a good time with him. The goal is to get to the end as quickly as possible,” Leonardo told media in France.

PSG are equally keen to tie down the respective futures of Kylian Mbappe, who has been linked with a transfer to Real Madrid, Angel Di Maria and Juan Bernat.

It was reported in his native Brazil earlier this month that Neymar is close to agreeing a new four-year deal with PSG that would take his stay at Parc des Princes well into his thirties.

Neymar had earlier told French broadcaster TF1: “I am happy today. I am truly happy. Things have changed a lot. I can’t exactly explain why. But today, I am feeling good. I have adapted. I am more calm and I am more happy.

“I want to stay at PSG. I also want Kylian [Mbappe] to stay. We want PSG to be a great team. I want to continue to play football and be happy, that is the most important thing.”

The situation has come a long way from 2019 when Neymar was pining to be reunited with Lionel Messi at Barcelona and was even alleged to have ‘cried’ when he found out that the move wouldn’t happen. However, there were also claims at the time that Barça ‘were not putting all of their weight into the transfer’, knowing that they didn’t have the resources to actually go through with it.

With Messi’s own Barcelona future up in the air, they are more likely to reunite in Paris than Catalonia.

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