Coutinho joins Bayern, Real Madrid set to beat Barcelona to sign Neymar, Alexis Sanchez makes shock exit decision and more: Transfer Roundup, 19 August 2019

By Shambhu Ajith

Modified Aug 19, 2019 13:01 GMT

The Neymar transfer saga could come to a close over the next few days

Real Madrid favourites to sign Neymar, could close deal in the next few days

Real Madrid will accelerate negotiations over the signing of Neymar with Paris Saint-Germain imminently as they look set to beat Barcelona in the race for the Brazilian's services. As per the latest reports, Real Madrid are in a much better position than the Catalans to sign Neymar and are all set to turn up the heat in the coming days.

Barcelona's offers for Neymar have not convinced Paris Saint-Germain director Leonardo. As per the report, Real Madrid reinitiated contact with Paris Saint-Germain over the weekend and it goes on to suggest that one of the biggest deals of the summer could be closed over the coming days.

Paris Saint-Germain had earlier asked for Vinicius to be included in the deal, but Real Madrid were not willing to part with the youngster. However, James Rodriguez is becoming a likely candidate to be included in the deal.

PSG could yet ask for Keylor Navas, Isco or Karim Benzema as well but the last two are nearly untouchable as far as the Blancos are concerned. After making it clear that he does not wish to remain at PSG and seeing how that has strained his relationship with the club, Neymar is expected to be ready to play for Real Madrid despite being initially interested in making a return to Barcelona.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Arvind Sriram