Neymar, the £196million man
BARCELONA’S Brazilian superstar Neymar is off to Paris Saint-Germain for a staggering, worldrecord fee of £196million. Neymar will sign a fiveyear deal worth £596,000 a week after tax with a £45m signing-on fee, as revealed by Sportsmail two weeks ago. In total, the deal will cost PSG a mind-boggling £396m.
Sportsmail first reported that PSG were confident of smashing the world record for the 25-yearold on July 20. At first Barcelona denied they could lose Neymar, dismissing secret talks between the player’s father and PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi as a ploy by the former to get a new contract for his son. But yesterday morning Neymar made a 40-minute appearance at Barcelona’s training ground where he met club directors and said goodbye to team-mates. Barcelona then issued a lunchtime statement
confirming Neymar had requested to leave before exiting to finalise his move to PSG.
Last 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 tomorrow.
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 euros (£22m) 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 last 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.
According to sources in Paris, Neymar flew to Porto yesterday where he had a medical in the presence of PSG’s Portuguese sporting director Antero Henrique. All that remains is for PSG to deposit the monster fee with the Spanish league, releasing the player from his contract.
PSG had fought against paying the money as a buy-out clause to the league because it means releasing all the funds immediately and incurring additional tax. But Barcelona were not prepared to allow the French club to treat the transfer as an orthodox deal.
They are also likely to put pressure on UEFA to fully investigate how PSG fund the payment of the clause — which they once thought beyond the reach of every club in the world. The full extent of Neymar’s commercial pulling power has been evident over the last week.
He was in China on Monday fulfilling various commercial commitments, including pulling on the Rakuten-sponsored Barca shirt he will now not be wearing next season.
During the club’s US tour various Barcelona players tried to change his mind but, as
Sportsmail reported 10 days ago, the club became resigned to losing him after a series of negative meetings with the player and his father. PSG will now use Neymar’s image to promote their club, the French league and the 2022 World Cup to be staged in Qatar, home of the club’s owners, the Qatar Investment Authority.
There has even been the suggestion that Neymar will sign a 300m euros (£269m) five-year publicity contract to promote the Qatar World Cup — a development that will interest UEFA’s financial fair play team if it becomes a reality.
Barcelona are understood to have already made contact with top Premier League clubs to ensure the game’s governing body thoroughly investigates the French side’s financing.
The player’s departure from Barcelona has left a bad taste with supporters. Posters have appeared close to the Nou Camp stadium with dollar signs on Neymar’s face under the words ‘traitor’ and ‘mercenary’.
The club must now turn their attention to buying a replacement. Neymar’s playboy lifestyle had raised eyebrows in Spain. But his fondness for partying with British Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton and Canadian singer Justin Bieber, or taking frequent trips to London, was more than countered by his brilliance on the pitch.
There was a training-ground row with Barcelona’s assistant coach Carles Unzue last season, with Unzue urging him not to end up like another Barca Brazilian, Ronaldinho, whose prolific social life cut short his career.
And he also fought with Barcelona summer recruit Nelson Semedo on the club’s tour.
But the good outweighs the bad and PSG have taken a huge step towards their goal of winning the Champions League for the first time by signing the player Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City were offered but could not afford.
Barcelona will begin rebuilding once they have cashed the biggest cheque in the history of the game. Supporters want them to sign Paulo Dybala of Juventus and Monaco desperately want them to enter the race for Kylian Mbappe, to increase his fee.
There are other targets, although Barca have been told 100m euros (£89m) will not be enough to get them Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho. To land Antoine Griezmann this summer will cost 200m euros (£178m) because his buy-out clause has been doubled for the duration of Atletico Madrid’s transfer ban. They have informed Atletico they will not try to sign him in 2017.
Borussia Dortmund’s Ousame Dembele is also a target, although it will hurt Barca to sign the Frenchman for the £90m asking price after missing out on him last summer when he cost only £15m.