Barcelona 'abandon Neymar pursuit'

Barcelona have reportedly dropped their pursuit of Paris Saint-Germain attacker Neymar.

The Brazil international has been strongly linked with a return to Camp Nou during this summer's transfer window, while Real Madrid have also been credited with an interest.

On Thursday, reports in Italy had claimed that Barca and PSG had come to an agreement over a deal for the South American, although the Catalan giants allegedly insisted that was not the case.

According to Mundo Deportivo, PSG wanted Ousmane Dembele, Ivan Rakitic and Jean-Clair Todibo plus a "significant" cash sum in exchange for Neymar ahead of Monday's European transfer deadline.

The report claims that Barca came back with a counter offer which was ultimately rejected, meaning that Ernesto Valverde's side have now pulled out of the hunt to bring the 27-year-old back to Spain this summer.

The former Santos youngster has scored 51 times in 58 appearances for Thomas Tuchel's side but is yet to feature in the early stages of this season amid the speculation surrounding his future.

Both Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu and PSG counterpart Nasser Al-Khelaifi were in Monaco on Thursday night for the Champions League group-stage draw.