Ney wants his pay: Neymar files THIRD legal claim against former club Barcelona

Neymar has launched a third legal claim against his former club Barcelona, alleging that he is owed around $7.1 million related to so-called 'contingency payments' he made to help his move to the club from Santos in 2013.

According to a report by Spanish publication El Mundo, the Brazilian superstar, who joined Paris Saint-Germain from Barcelona in 2017, wants to reclaim the sum he says he was obliged to pay to help along his transfer to the Spanish giants seven years ago.

This represents a new legal claim against the club by the player, following a January 2018 claim in which he said he was owed nearly $30 million in unpaid bonuses. A second action was taken at the tail end of last year, when he demanded $3.8 million in what he claims were unpaid wages.

The furor surrounding the various legal actions, as well as revelations about the fee they paid for the player, resulted in the resignation of ex-Barca president Sandro Rosell after he was found to have misappropriated funds related to Neymar's transfer from his boyhood team.

The original transfer fee was reported to be in the region of $62 million before it was later clarified to be closer to $95 million. 

In addition to that sum, Neymar's parents received a financial package totaling around $44 million. 

Neymar enjoyed four fruitful seasons at Barcelona, helping them to the 2015 Champions League as part of a treble they won that season. He also won La Liga the following season before oil-rich PSG opened their wallets to pay Neymar's contractual release clause of $263 million.

His time in the French capital has had its ups and downs. He has an impressive goalscoring record, with 67 goals in 78 games, but his time on the field has been restricted due to a series of injuries.

He was also accused of sexual assault last year in Paris, but French prosecutors dropped their investigation after determining there was insufficient evidence.

Another potentially interesting element to this tale is that Neymar has been heavily linked with a return to the Camp Nou, with some of the club's top stars – Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez among them – apparently campaigning for a reunion of the club's exceptionally talented three-pronged front line. 

While it's true that Neymar's dispute with the club centers on the actions of a club president who is no longer in office, the various legal actions taken by the player will likely strain any potential relationship between the two parties to near breaking point. And it appears unlikely, as of now at least, that these matters could be overcome in time to see the player return to his former club. 

And with the player thought to be weighing up a move from Paris at the end of the season, if his relationship with his old club cannot be fully repaired, Barca's La Liga rivals Real Madrid may be tempted to swoop for the mercurial Brazilian.