Juventus fans dreaming of Neymar - Zambrotta

Jamie Smith

Juventus fans dreaming of Neymar - Zambrotta image

Juventus fans are dreaming of signing Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain, says Gianluca Zambrotta.

PSG have confirmed Neymar wants to leave the Ligue 1 champions, with a stunning return to Barcelona mooted.

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But Juve are also reportedly interested in the Brazil superstar, who missed his country's Copa America triumph with an ankle injury.

Juve could reportedly offer a cash sum, as well as Blaise Matuidi and Paulo Dybala to PSG for Neymar, who is due to take part in the French club's close-season trip to China.

Any such deal would pair Neymar with Cristiano Ronaldo in attack and although Zambrotta accepts the transfer could be tricky, the former Bianconeri star feels Juventus fans want to see it happen.

"Juve fans, and Italian fans in general, dream of seeing Neymar in Serie A," Zambrotta told Omnisport at the Riccione event for this year's Bobo Summer Cup.

"It would be yet another great marketing move for Italian football, after Cristiano Ronaldo. With Neymar, Juve would be in the top five big clubs in the world. The Juve brand would grow massively in the world.

"It won't be easy, but I see also a possible return of Neymar to Barcelona is difficult, although there were many famous comebacks in football recent history, the last being that of [Gianluigi] Buffon to Juventus after a short spell at PSG, I recall also Kaka and Shevchenko returned to AC Milan."

Paul Pogba has also been linked with a return to Juventus, with the midfielder's agent Mino Raiola confirming the World Cup winner wants to leave Manchester United.

Gianluigi Buffon, Aaron Ramsey and Adrien Rabiot have already joined Maurizio Sarri's squad on free transfers, while an initial €75 million (£68m/$84m) was spent to sign Ajax captain Matthijs de Ligt.

"Juve always have big names on their shopping list," Zambrotta added. "If they want to be competitive in Europe and finally win the Champions League after so many years, they have to spend big money and keep on securing the best players. Like they did with Cristiano Ronaldo last summer.

"They've already invested a lot of money in promising young players, like De Ligt. Pogba would probably give Juve the edge on the European stage. Times have changed compared to 15 years ago. Football has changed a lot.

"Juventus are making long-term investments on young players born in 1999 and 1998, for example Merih Demiral, who has a bright future ahead, and De Ligt, who is only 19 year old and already proved his value at Ajax.

"Juventus needed to invest in defenders, because they have relied on [Giorgio] Chiellini who is not getting any younger, despite being still reliable, [Leonardo] Bonucci is not young either, [Andrea] Barzagli has just retired, so Juve needed to sign a great defender."

Jamie Smith