FC Barcelona could sign former player Neymar through the Brazilian moving to Saudi Arabia from Paris Saint-Germain first, according to SPORT.

According to L'Equipe, the world's most expensive player informed his Qatari employers on Sunday that he wishes to leave the club he joined from the Catalans when his €222 million ($243 million) release clause was triggered in 2017.

Neymar's salary, reported by Forbes on the list of The World's Highest-Paid Athletes as $50 million a year, is a sticking point for Barca who have been linked to a reunification with the 31-year-old.

The Blaugrana are having trouble navigating Financial Fair Play limits, but by a Saudi club backed by the Public Investment Fund first buying Neymar from PSG, this issue could be eliminated.

If Neymar were to sign for a Saudi Pro League team, they could then come to an arrangement with Barca through commercial agreements including a possible friendly match between the two outfits, SPORT reports.

The potential Saudi club could assume the bulk of Neymar's wages, and super agent Pini Zahavi, who is a close friend of Barca president Joan Laporta and with whom Neymar and his father met in Ibiza at the weekend to decide the player's future, will be responsible for getting the "very complicated operation" over the line.

With all this going on in the back ground, outlets such as AS and SPORT continue to report that Xavi Hernandez isn't wild about the idea of having his former teammate from the 2014-2015 treble in his changing room for the possible disruptive influence he could be.

"Look I appreciate Neymar as a person, as a player, as a friend, he’s a great player, but he’s not in our plans no," the legendary midfielder told Gerard Romero a couple of months ago, when the Santos academy product had reportedly "offered" himself to Barca in the wake of Lionel Messi's decision to join Inter Miami.

With Barca struggling to register new players and the fresh contracts of existing stars, however, Neymar could provide an interesting alternative to Manchester City's Bernardo Silva as the La Liga champions remain priced out of making a reasonable approach for the Portuguese.