Zinedine Zidane says there would be no compatibility issues if Neymar were to one day play alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, though he is not aware of any talks to sign the Brazilian from Paris Saint-Germain.
Recent reports have said Madrid president Florentino Perez is close to finally landing long-time target Neymar, with AS reporting that a meeting had taken place to put together a summer move which would break the €222 million world transfer record set when the Brazilian joined PSG from Barcelona last year.
Two weeks out from Madrid’s Champions League final against Liverpool in Kiev, Ukraine, the issue dominated Friday morning’s news conference at Madrid’s Valdebebas training facility. Asked directly whether he knew if talks were going on between his club and Neymar’s camp, Zidane said his view was that planning for next season would begin properly once this campaign was over.
“I don’t know if they are negotiating for Neymar,” Zidane said. “I don’t believe so, as what we care about is what we are doing at the moment. I don’t get into that, it is for others. We must finish this season well, and the rest will be talked about afterwards. There will be changes for sure, but I am not thinking about that now.”
Zidane went on to reject a question claiming that Neymar and Ronaldo could not play together in the same XI.
“Good players are always compatible,” Zidane said. “People said I was not compatible with [former France teammate Youri] Djorkaeff. What nonsense! Together we won the World Cup. On the pitch good players always get on, off the pitch I don’t know, but on the pitch there is always chemistry.”
Zidane accepted a suggestion that planning for next season could depend on whether the team lost to Liverpool in Kiev, with his own job even in trouble after they exited the Copa del Rey early and did not challenge Barcelona in La Liga’s title race.
“What happens will happen,” he said. “I am very positive, thinking just about doing everything to win, not about anything else. But you know that here, what counts are results, nothing else. We started the season well, winning three trophies, two at start then Club World Cup. For us it went a bit worse in the Copa and in La Liga. But now we are in the Champions League final and will give everything, to again defend our title.”
Zidane admitted that his team’s intensity in Saturday’s home game against Celta Vigo and next weekend at Villarreal may not be at 100 percent given they are 18 points behind Barca now, but denied it would be a problem while getting ready to face Liverpool on May 26.
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