Barcelona superstar set for shock exit to join PSG, €70 million Barcelona target chooses to join Real Madrid and more: LaLiga Transfer News, 20 April 2019

By Shambhu Ajith

Modified Apr 30, 2019 08:52 GMT

Ernesto Valverde could lose one of his top players in the summer

Philippe Coutinho wants to follow Neymar Jr. to PSG

Coutinho fell out of favour with the Camp Nou faithful after joining La Blaugrana amid huge fanfare in the winter transfer window of 2018. After impressing initially, Coutinho failed to live up to the expectations that were set for him after his record-breaking move. Now he is fed up with the treatment being meted out by the fans and has his mind set on a move to Paris Saint-Germain.

Coutinho had been widely linked with a return to the Premier League with Manchester United being one of the most prominent names touted as a potential destination for the Brazilian. However, having served Liverpool in the past, Coutinho does not want to join a Premier League rival and has thus decided to join his countryman Neymar in Paris.

Coutinho scored a peach of a goal against Manchester United in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie and his goal was met with loud cheers and thus these new reports come as a bit of a shock. Meanwhile, Neymar is doing his best to force the issue and rope in Coutinho to PSG.

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