Report: Messi Tried to Convince Neymar to Stay: 'I'll Get You the Ballon d'Or!'

Lionel Messi did his level best to try and convince Neymar to remain a Barcelona player, and even told him he'd make him a Ballon d'Or

Lionel Messi did his level best to try and convince Neymar to remain a Barcelona player, and even told him he'd make him a Ballon d'Or.

The Brazilian superstar stunned the footballing world by completing a switch to Paris Saint-Germain a few weeks ago for the value of his buy-out clause of £198m.

He did so in order to give himself the best chance of becoming the world's best player, and was reported to have felt uncomfortable in teammate Messi's shadow.

A report from Sport has now revealed that the Argentine genius actually tried to persuade Neymar to stay at the Nou Camp with a promise to help him become the greatest.

Apparently Messi, along with fellow South American Luis Suarez, met with the 25-year-old on the eve of Barca's clash with Juventus in the International Champions Cup, and Messi offered to aid Neymar in his quest for individual honours.

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It is no secret that the former Santos prospect wants to win a Ballon d'Or and apparently Messi said 'What do you want? You want to win the Ballon d’Or? I’ll get you the Ballon d’Or' in a desperate bid to get him to stay. He also tried remind Neymar of a particular match in which Neymar shone for the Blaugrana, seemingly in a bid to massage the player's ego.

It fell on deaf ears though, and Neymar is now a PSG player, where he will attempt to achieve greatness.