Neymar recently completed a move from Spanish giants Barcelona to heavy-weight Paris Saint-Germain, with the fee paid at around £200 million. The move has raised the question as to whether any footballer is worth such an amount of money. The transfer wasn’t as straightforward as it seems, as it was the Brazlian’s release clause, which was met, but this also raises the question as to whether his deal has rendered release clauses redundant.
One thing is for certain; the deal smashed the amount Manchester United for Paul Pogba last summer.
Therefore, is the whopping £200 million too much to pay for a footballer? Majority would say yes. Big name players bring a lot of money into the club through the sale of shirts and merchandise but there is no way, when you combine the fee paid, wages and bonuses that anything more than a small percentage can be recouped.
It’s also very unlikely that a player will ever be sold on for profit when they have been brought for a huge amount. The likes of Neymar (£200m) and Pogba (£89m) won’t ever move in deals close to that value again. So from a financial point of view, I don’t think there is any player worth so much money.
One reason why some clubs would agree to such moves is to increase the stature of the club and to make a statement to the footballing world. People will sit up and take notice if somebody goes out and spends £200 million on a player. So while financially it may not be worth it, the mega rich owners involved at clubs these days may see it as a way to get their club and the project into the spotlight.
Good players cost money and you generally have to break the bank for quality players these days. If you’re spending £200 million on a footballer, while he may not actually be worth that amount of money, they might seem to be the best players in the world.
So Neymar for example, the Brazilian’s produced the goods consistently and PSG knows they have brought in a player who could take their club to the next level. This had been reflected in online betting operators’ odd on PSG winning the French Ligue 1 title.
Nobody wouldn’t finance such deals if they did not believe the player would without any doubt improve the team. So whilst, no player is worth £200 million, there are still only a very small number of clubs out there with the financial power to put together such deals.
To many people, deals such as the Neymar one, are about making a statement rather than valuing a player at such a figure. World-class players do make a difference but not £200 million pounds worth of a difference.
One thing is for certain when deals are happening at ridiculous sums of money, it will filter down and others further down the ladder will feel the effect. Players who were once valued at maybe £5million could now be worth upwards of £20m or even £30m, and that is a scary scenario.