Barcelona May Be Holding Neymar Grudge After Frosty Reunion With Bartomeu at FIFA Gala

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu may well be holding something of a grudge against Neymar over the way the Brazilian superstar left Camp Nou in a €222m move to French giants Paris Saint-German during the summer.

Barça were powerless to prevent Neymar from leaving as soon it became clear that PSG were willing to trigger his buyout clause and that he was prepared to accept the offer from France.

ALAIN JOCARD/GettyImages

That appears to have left a sour taste in the mouth in Catalunya, as Mundo Deportivo (MD) speaks of a frosty greeting between Bartomeu and Neymar on Monday night when the elite of world football descended on London for the FIFA Best Awards ceremony.

Bartomeu is said to have congratulated Neymar over his inclusion in the FIFPro World XI and spoken to his father, but it was apparently very deliberate that the exchange between the parties took place away from cameras.

Michael Steele/GettyImages

MD directly compared that with how Bartomeu responded to another former Barça player in Dani Alves, also now at PSG, where there was a much warmer reunion.

And that is despite veteran full-back Alves heavily criticising the club in an interview earlier this year over the circumstances in which he eventually left Camp Nou for Juventus in 2016.

Alves had slammed the Barcelona board of directors, of which Bartomeu is one, describing them as "very false and ungrateful", while also going on to declare, "The people who run Barcelona today have no idea how to treat their players."

That tirade, which happened just five months before Neymar quit Barcelona, seems to be water under the bridge as far as Bartomeu is concerned. But it may be some time before Neymar is back on the Christmas card list at Casa Bartomeu.