NEYMAR JR. Becomes The Most Expensive Footballer of all time

-Shivang Goel (shivanggoel997@gmail.com)

Neymar da Silva Santos Jr., a 25-year-old talented Brazilian footballer, is popularly known as Neymar. He is widely regarded as the third best player in the world after Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi and he's now the most expensive player too.

His $267m (approx. Rs 1,680 crore) switch in the 2017 summer transfer window from Barcelona to Paris St. German made him the most expensive footballer of all time. He broke the world record transfer fee set by Paul Pogba who was transferred to Manchester United from Juventus for a sum not less than $126m (approx. Rs 800 crore).

The figure is surely a monstrous one and it is technically more than the combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the two islands, Tuvalu and Nauru.

The Neymar’s transfer in Indian prospective can understood by the fact that with this amount they can buy four IPL teams , Mumbai Indians ($78m), Kolkata Knight Riders ($77m), Royal Challengers Bangalore ($67m) and Sunrisers Hyderabad ($41m).

Transfer values have grown exponentially in the last decade. As the television viewership grows, these fees will continue to rise as well.

Barcelona left no brick unturned in their efforts to block the Neymar deal despite of that PSG matched the release clause in Brazilian forward’s contract, a clause traditionally set at a level so high as to prevent any interests from any rival clubs.

Financial Fair Play was introduced by Uefa seven years ago in 2010 to stop clubs involved in European competition from spending more than they earn.

Many coaches from top clubs publicly objected the transfer value and urged Uefa to step in to investigate the deal before it was finally penned down.

Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool FC coach was quoted saying “I always thought financial fair play was meant to prevent something like this, but it seems like financial fair play is more of a recommendation than an actual rule,’’

His concerns were quite valid given Barcelona’s interest in Liverpool’s attacking midfielder Coutinho.

Paris St. German is by no means alone; many other European football giants make a mockery of financial fair play. The temptation to bring in big names is simply too significant, not only due to the sporting success but the marketing opportunities that come with them.

It is believed that Manchester United earned the amount from Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s endorsements in the first week of his free transfer was equivalent to the transfer fee paid by them to Juventus.

Racking up transfer deficits such as in the case of Neymar is punishable by various sanctions, including the exclusion from various competitions.

PSG club president and Qatari billionaire Nasser Al-Khelaifi believes his club won't have an issue turning a profit out of this deal in a long run, he said "When you consider Neymar as a brand, maybe it won't seem so expensive. I'm sure we'll make more money than we've paid," referring to new sponsorship opportunities, Neymar’s brand value and the money they can fetch from championship victories.

Well, whatever happens, either Neymar achieve his ambitions to win Ballon d’or or emerge as the number one footballer, clubs billionaire owners will continue to throw in the money on players perhaps they will continue to try to determine what counts as a fair price.