Neymar and PSG: Was it all worth it?

Neymar's €222m move to Paris Saint-Germain changed football and symbolised the power of their Qatari owners. Now he's off to Saudi...

and PSG. But then there was indignation at everything off the field, rising even to anger in May this year when some fans went directly to protest outside his house in Bougival, west of Paris. Neymar had undergone ankle surgery and had not played for the club for three months. Yet he was the target because he was the symbol of the owners’ project in Paris.

For the club, though, Neymar was a status signing and he gave the club’s brand a greater global dimension. “Before Neymar, PSG was worth €1billion, now we’re worth €1.5bn,” declared club president Nasser Al Khelaifi at his unveiling.That was seen as an exaggeration at the time, but today, the club claim they are close to welcoming new American investors, Arctos, at a club valuation of €4.25billion.

That contract felt a little surprising in football terms in any case. It was put down to a sense that there was no market for him in a Covid 19-depleted football landscape, but on the field, Neymar had not delivered what most expected of him. That expectation was European success, with his talent being at the heart of it — the driving force for PSG in the way Messi had guided Barcelona.Yet Neymar was rarely available for the crunch period of seasons.

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