Neymar shockingly left the Spanish champions to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer 2017 for a world-record fee of 222 million Euros.
Senior players in the dressing room were reportedly pushing for Neymar’s return to Barcelona last summer just few years after leaving, and the 28-year old was also keen to leave France but a move back to La Liga did not materialize.
In a wide-ranging interview with Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo, Messi conceded that he is still longing for the PSG star to re-sign for Barcelona, where he formed a lethal partnership with him and Luis Suarez, which was popularly known as ‘MSN’.
"Neymar is one of the best in the world and I'd love him to come back,” the 32-year-old said.
“He is a very happy person who is always smiling and enjoys himself on and off the pitch. He gave all the players a lift.”
"It's normal for the fans to feel [resentment about his possible return] because of the way he left, and that also bothered me at the time because we tried to do everything possible to try to convince him not to do it.”
"At the end of the day, we all want to win. We all want to have the best and that goes for the fans, who want to see good football and success.”
"I think Neymar really wants to come back. He's sorry about what he did and last year he tried hard to come back. I think that [apologizing] would be the first step he would take to try to make it happen."
