The day football lost its marbles!
As Brazilian superstar (who’s not even the best player at his club) is set to be sold for £196MILLION
EVEN in the mad world of football transfers, it is a staggering amount of money.
But the crazy spending by super-rich clubs reached new levels yesterday, with Brazilian forward Neymar agreeing to join French side Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) for an astonishing £196million.
It will be the biggest transfer in football history and more than double the game’s previous record of £89.3million set just last year.
The 25-year-old Barcelona player will also be paid £596,000 a week, it was reported. This means PSG will have to fork out £31million a year in wages, taking the total cost of the deal to more than £350million over five years.
With bonuses also included if he plays well, it could reach more than £450million.
But money is no issue for the French side, which is one of the world’s richest clubs following their takeover by Qatar Sports Investments (QSi), an arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund with access to £194billion.
The £196million transfer meets the buy- out clause in Neymar’s contract which means another team can sign him if they are willing to pay the whole fee.
It smashes the previous record, set by Manchester United last year when the club signed Frenchman Paul Pogba. Bizarrely, Neymar is not even considered to be the best player at his own club.
Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi is widely regarded to share the title of best player in the world, with Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi scored 24 goals more than Neymar in the Spanish league last year despite them both playing as strikers for the same team.
Away from football, Neymar has more than 30million followers on Twitter and 78million on Instagram – more than David Beckham and Wayne Rooney combined.
He endorses more than a dozen products, including a bank, a car manufacturer and perfume and also has his own trainer collaboration with Nike and basketball great Michael Jordan, the ‘Air Jordan v Neymar’.
An avid collector of sports shoes, he was once said to have spent more than £14,000 on them in one shopping trip. This year he was placed third on Forbes magazine’s list of the highest-paid footballers behind Ronaldo and Messi.
Born in Mogi das Cruzes, a small city east of Sao Paulo, Neymar da Silva Santos Junior is the only son of former professional footballer Neymar Santos and wife Nadine.
The family are close and his father has guided his son’s career and continues to work as his agent. He is phenomenally popular in Brazil. When he was left out of the squad for the 2010 World Cup finals, 14,000 fans signed a petition in a bid to get him included.
He was 19 when his ex-girlfriend Carol Dantas gave birth to his son, David Lucca, and they both moved to Barcelona when Neymar signed for the team in 2013.
He has been in an on- off relationship with model Bruna Marquezine and has previously been linked to women including singer Demi Lovato and Brazilian model Caroline Caputo.
Known for his party lifestyle, Neymar was famously pictured on nights out with British Formula One champion Louis Hamilton and became friends with Canadian pop star Justin Bieber.
There were frequent trips to London on days off which led to reports Barcelona’s then assistant coach Carles Unzue warning him during a training ground row not to throw away his talent.
On the pitch, during his four seasons in Catalonia, Neymar has helped Barcelona win the Spanish league twice, the Champions League once, the Spanish cup on three occasions and the FIFA Club World Cup.
Qatar, a microstate with a population of just 2.57million, already has its own Masters golf tournament, sponsors the ‘Qatar’ Goodwood Festival, and is controversially set to host 2022 football World Cup, a deal which has been surrounded by allegations of bribery and corruption.
The country is currently locked in a bitter diplomatic dispute with its neighbours who have accused its government of supporting terrorism.
But the signing of Neymar is a signal that it is businesses as usual for the tiny gas-rich state. Neymar reportedly met PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi in Qatar on Tuesday before making a brief visit to Barcelona’s training ground yesterday to inform the club of his wish to leave.
In 2014, Barcelona were charged with committing tax fraud when they signed the forward and agreed to pay a fine of almost £4.4million to the Spanish authorities to settle the case. The case led to Spain’s public prosecutor calling for the star to be sent to prison for two years for his part in a corruption case linked to his 2013 transfer.
Last week, Neymar Snr said his son had been cleared of tax evasion charges in his native Brazil.
The forward was fined £50.7million last year for failing to properly report earnings on his contracts with former club Santos, Barcelona and his sponsorship deals between 2011 and 2014.
This fine – which included the allegedly unpaid back taxes and interest – was halved on appeal in March this year.
‘Must be paid in full’