The Ligue 1 trophy wrapped up in emphatic style after a 7-1 drubbing of its former holders Monaco at the weekend, PSG still remains an anxious club: discontent and readying the ship for what is certain to be a hectic summer of personnel changes, with a view to finally mounting a squad worthy of claiming the Champions League.
Blasé over the possible threat of falling foul of Financial Fair Play rules and possibly losing Kylian Mbappé, reports out of Spain and Brazil have suggested that the Parisian outfit is currently readying an astronomical bid for Real Madrid and Brazilian national team stalwart Casemiro.
It is believed that this request has come at the behest of PSG’s sporting director Antero Henrique, who worked with Casemiro when the São Paulo FC academy product was shipped out on loan from Madrid to Porto in order to gain match experience. The move paid dividends, bringing Casemiro on in European football and starting him on a trajectory that now finds him in the eyes of many as having supplanted Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets as the world’s greatest central defensive midfielder.
For Zinedine Zidane, Casemiro has been an integral part of a team that has won back-to-back Champions League titles – his second and third at the club, whilst currently honing in a fourth - as well as last season’s La Liga, and brings the exact kind of winning-mentality PSG seeks as it strives to be considered among the continent’s elite clubs.
Tied down in a contract until 2021, and seemingly happy in the Spanish capital, it is believed that Casemiro’s hefty release clause of €200mn will need to be met in order to acquire the player’s services. Simultaneously, however, it has been suggested that Casemiro could be used as collateral in a part-exchange deal for Neymar should Madrid finally launch a bid for the star that has painfully-eluded them since adolescence.
