Inter Miami have been strongly linked with a move for Neymar all January, yet the MLS side look to have missed out on the winger.
News broke last week that Neymar had agreed to re-join Santos from Al-Hilal, with the forward since terminating his contract with the Saudi Arabian side ahead of a fairytale return to his boyhood club in Brazil.
With Neymar saying he wanted to reunite with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, there were real hopes that the 32-year-old attacker would opt to join Inter Miami ahead of the 2025 season and reform the famed MSN frontline that made FC Barcelona so feared in the mid-2010s.
Yet the transfer was not meant to be, and famed soccer journalist Fabrizio Romano has now shared a major update surrounding Neymar ahead of his impending move to Santos over Inter Miami.
Neymar traveling to Santos right now to complete transfer
Taking to Twitter, Romano shared that Neymar to Santos is a done deal, with the former PSG winger traveling to Brazil as we speak to complete his historic return to his boyhood club, much to the disappointment of Inter Miami.
Romano posted: “Neymar Jr back to Santos, story confirmed and here we go! Al-Hilal have terminated Ney’s contract with immediate effect as the Brazilian will now travel for medical and sign in as new Santos player. Back to Santos, back to Vila Belmiro.”
With Inter Miami needing to make three big changes to land Neymar this January, the odds of the Herons landing the former Barcelona forward were always going to be slim, even with the sale of Designated Player Leonardo Campana to the New England Revolution.
Indeed, Neymar heading back to Neymar is an outcome that many neutral soccer fans will be pleased to see, and for Inter Maimi, the transfer allows Javier Mascherano’s side to focus on new targets with only a few weeks of the transfer window remaining.
Who should Inter Miami target with Neymar now off the table?
Neymar would have been a seismic signing for Inter Miami, with the Brazil international one of the biggest names in soccer and a player who could have brought even more eyeballs and attention to MLS and the Herons for the new season.
Yet with Neymar now heading to Santos, the Florida franchise need to look elsewhere for a new superstar signing, with Angel Di Maria believed to be a target for Inter Miami as well as AS Roma attacker Paulo Dybala.
With a forward clearly on Mascherano’s mind, there’s a real chance that a superstar attacker could join the fold in the coming weeks leading into the 2025 MLS season, with Inter Miami keen to go all the way in the play-offs and to deliver in the FIFA Club World Cup.