Tebas claims neither Ronaldo nor Neymar more important than Messi

La Liga President Javier Tebas has stated that neither Ronaldo nor Neymar is as important as Lionel Messi for La Liga. But he added that he would like the Brazilian to return to La Liga. 

Neymar left Barcelona for PSG in 2017 whereas Cristiano left the year after for Juventus. As a result, Lionel Messi has become the sole superstar of the Spanish league. 

Neymar has been rumored for a return to Barcelona, as the Brazilian is clearly unhappy at PSG and was left out of all the PSG games this season. Asked about Neymar’s return, Tebas said that he would like him to return. 

"Yes, of course [I'd like Neymar to return]. With his qualities, he's in the top three players in the world. It would be very important for La Liga if he came again, although it wouldn't be defining for the Spanish league," Tebas told MARCA.

But he didn’t forget to add that whoever it was, nobody was more important to La Liga than Lionel Messi. Tebas said, "A player like Neymar gives you a following in countries that look out for him, but he's not an essential element, not even Cristiano Ronaldo was. Lionel Messi, on the other hand, is an essential element because he's the heritage of La Liga."

Barcelona have already made big-money signings in Frenkie de Jong and Antoine Griezmann, and there is a question if they can afford Neymar at this point. But the President of La Liga believes that if Barcelona wants him, they can strike a deal for Neymar. "If they are interested in signing [Neymar] it's because they can [afford] it. I'm not going to go there because there are many factors that we don't know about at the moment," he concluded. 

La Liga has already started and Barcelona sit ninth after they suffered a shock defeat to Bilbao on opening weekend. Lionel Messi, out with a calf injury, is yet to feature for Barcelona this season.