World Record Signing
Lisbon: Brazilian superstar Neymar is off to Paris Saint-Germain for a staggering, worldrecord fee of £198million (FJ$524.87m). Neymar will sign a fiveyear deal worth £596,000 (FJ$ 1,581,394.56) a week after tax with a £45m (FJ$ 119.40m) signing-on fee, as revealed by Sportsmail two weeks ago. In total, the deal will cost PSG a mindboggling £398m (FJ$1,055.04m).
Sportsmail first reported that PSG were confident of smashing the world record for the 25-year-old on July 20. At first Barcelona denied they could lose Neymar, dismissing secret talks between the player’s father and PSG president Nasser AlKhelaifi as a ploy by the former to get a new contract for his son. But on Wednesday morning Neymar made a 40-minute appearance at Barcelona’s training ground where he met club directors and said goodbye to teammates. Barcelona then issued a lunchtime statement confirming Neymar had requested to leave before exiting
to finalise his move to PSG. On Wednesday night the agent Wagner Ribeiro, who is working with the Neymars on the deal, confirmed the fee will be paid in the next 48 hours and the player could be presented in Paris as early as today. Sportsmail understands there was no grand speech in the dressing room when Neymar said farewell. But he embraced teammates one by one and later Lionel Messi posted on social media: ‘It was a huge pleasure to share these years with you my friend Neymar. I wish you the best of luck in the new stage of your life.’ Barcelona are in no mood for such fond farewells and the club went on the offensive with the player’s father — who is set to earn a huge commission for brokering the deal only 10 months after committing his son to a new contract at the Nou Camp until 2021.
Barcelona confirmed they have not paid Neymar’s father commission for that renewal, despite a payment of 25m (£22m) (FJ$58.31m) being due last Monday. The club have deposited the money with a lawyer in the city and will take legal advice after Neymar’s transfer has been concluded, to see if they can pay only a percentage of the fee — in keeping with the proportion of the deal which Neymar served.
Spanish media reported on Wednesday night that when Neymar met with Barcelona directors on Wednesday morning they were shocked to hear him enquiring when the money owed to his father would be paid.
Neymar flew to Porto on Wednesday where he had a medical in the presence of PSG’s Portuguese sporting director Antero Henrique.