Neymar to Inter Miami Isn’t Happening

Paris-St. Germain was once a place where the world’s elite soccer talent wanted to play.

Remember Lionel Messi (I get he may not have wanted to go there, but that’s where he wound up)?

It seems more of its talented roster wants to move away from the Parc de Princes to greener pastures. One of its stars has actually been linked to a Messi-like move to Major League Soccer.

But, it’s not going to be Inter Miami as some have speculated.

Let’s get into it.

Neymar Looking For a Quick Exit Out Of France

PSG did a great job assembling an outstanding roster of international talent.

They had Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and others. The problem was they couldn’t do anything with that talent.

Now, Neymar wants to follow Messi out of Paris and on to something he perceives will be better.

Some speculation would have you believe he will follow Messi to South Florida to join up with fellow Barcelona ex-teammates Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.

Others would suggest a more lucrative move to the Saudi Pro League is in order.

While other rumors have the Brazilian forward moving back to Barcelona, now that the club has .

But L’Equipe, the French sports publication, have gone a step further to report an MLS side actually reached out to explore the possibility of luring Neymar to the U.S.

Inter Miami Isn’t In the Cards for Neymar

We may want to see it… heck, we may even salivate over it.

But Neymar isn’t coming to South Florida for a reunion with Messi and Co. at Inter Miami.

The most obvious reason is that the MLS transfer window is closed and teams can only sign free agents… Neymar is still under contract with PSG through 2025. Of course, his contract termination would make him a free agent, which leads me to ...

The second reason is that there’s really no place to put him.

On the field, yes, there is plenty of room in attack for a player the caliber of Neymar, however, there aren’t any slots for him to fill.

Inter Miami already has the maximum three designated player spots, which would be the only plausible place to put him as his salary demands would exceed Inter Miami’s entire salary cap.

He could fill an international slot, but to my knowledge, Inter Miami doesn’t have any more international slots to put him in.

That pretty much eliminates any and all possibility of Neymar moving to Inter Miami during the summer transfer season.

That doesn’t mean he couldn’t come to MLS.

Sides That Could Bring Neymar to the U.S.

Now, while the transfer season is over and a loan deal isn’t possible either as those transactions would have to be completed during the window, there is an outside shot Neymar could come to the U.S.

However, it wouldn’t be until the winter window opens.

But, there are some teams that could be a fit for Neymar, would he choose to stay at PSG until the winter?

The Express newspaper in England laid out some interesting scenarios:

LA Galaxy — This is a possibility now that Chicharito is out for the rest of the season on injury. This may open up a designated player spot for Neymar to go to Los Angeles.

Plus, the Galaxy has plenty of experience dealing with high-profile, expensive players and he would be a good fit for the culture.

However, Los Angeles FC might be a better fit.

The Black and Gold already have a designated player spot open after Gareth Bale retired at the end of last season.

And, out of the two Los Angeles clubs, he would likely be a better fit with LAFC than with the Galaxy.

Then, you have New York City FC. The power and money behind the dollar-laden City Football Club packs enough firepower to lure Neymar. The problem here is, as I said before, the MLS transfer window is closed.

So, he would have to sign with a City club — the only likely target here would be Manchester City, who doesn’t need him — then he could be loaned to NYCFC in the winter.

Plus, Neymar in the largest media market in the country would be rather exciting to watch.

But, both LAFC and NYCFC would have to do some roster shuffling to make any kind of a deal happen.

Finally, you have the most unlikely candidate: Orlando City.

They had experience with Brazilian players before with Kaka and the excitement of the Florida derby featuring Messi against Neymar would be absolutely stunning.

However, it’s Orlando.

I struggle to go to Orlando for a weekend let alone would I want to go for an entire season.

I also struggle with what kind of a deal an MLS side could put together to entice Neymar to the States.

Messi is already getting a cut of AppleTV MLS Season Pass subscriptions and a cut of jersey sales from Adidas. To match that kind of money would take some very creative bookkeeping on behalf of MLS.

In short, it would be exciting for the league to bring a talent like Neymar to the States, but without rule changes, roster changes or accounting changes, it seems it would be a very difficult deal to pull off.