Neymar also goes to Saudi Arabia to play football. His new club, Al-Hilal, has just under 100 million dollars for that. Money that many European clubs may no longer want to pay for the injury-prone Brazilian.
With $222 million spent in 2017 on his transfer from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint Germain (PSG), Brazilian Neymar is still the most expensive transfer ever in football. Together with Frenchman Kylian Mbappé and Argentinian world star Lionel Messi, Neymar had to become the showcase of a team that would win the Champions League. The trio failed. Despite all the investments, PSG did reach the final once, but in 2019 the Parisians had to give up against Bayern Munich.
Earlier, Mbappé rejected an offer from the team that Neymar is now moving to. It was equally clear that the Brazilian was sidelined in the French capital. He himself hoped to be able to go to old love FC Barcelona. But perhaps the finances of the Catalan club were not ready enough to make such a transfer.
Those are problems that clubs in Saudi Arabia don’t seem to have. With the transfer of Neymar, according to the French sports newspaper The Team $ 90 million are involved, an amount that can rise to 100 million through bonuses. Neymar would – according to the French newspaper – sign a two-year contract with Al-Hilal and earn around 160 million euros.
“No European top club was going to pay that amount for Neymar,” says Dutch sports marketer and consultant Chris Woerts. “He is either injured or on the way to getting injured: he dives more than he plays.” In fact, Neymar’s profile matches that of his colleagues who moved from Europe to Saudi Arabia this summer. Although younger players also opt for the petrodollars, they are often slightly older players who have just passed their peak in Europe.
The amounts involved are also higher than what European (top) clubs might have wanted to pay for these players. “I think that impression is correct,” says Stijn Francis, player agent for Toby Alderweireld and Dries Mertens, among others. “That is fortunate for many of those clubs: not only because of the money they still get for older players, but also because it helps to comply with the European Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.”
According to these rules, a club cannot spend more than it brings in. Certainly European top clubs always try to find a back door to escape – for example, in 2017 it was officially a Qatari investment fund that funded the transfer from Neymar to PSG, not the club. “Think of London’s top club Chelsea,” says Francis. “They have made a lot of transfers under their new American owner Ted Boehly. So it became difficult to comply with the FFP. Unless you can get 23 million euros for a player like Kalidou Koulibaly.”
Waterfall effect
This is how a whole lot of extra money flows into European football. “The main source of money in football comes from television contracts to broadcast matches,” says sports economist and professor Trudo Dejonghe (KU Leuven). “The English Premier League is the most important source for all European football. Now the Saudi money comes on top of that.”
In the short term, the Saudi petrodollars are an additional source of income for European (top) clubs. “Unless the Saudi clubs and their league are a bit more body get”, says sports marketing professor Wim Lagae (KU Leuven). “Then maybe Saudi Arabia can go in one rat race end up with Europe.” For now, no one seems to expect that, because the attraction of European top teams and prizes is too great.
For the time being, it is mainly those (English) top clubs that are benefiting from the Saudi interest. Although, according to Dejonghe, that money will eventually also end up with smaller leagues and clubs. “Look at Jérémy Doku’s file,” says Francis. “It is mentioned at Manchester City, which previously sold Riyad Mahrez to the Saudi Al-Ahli for 35 million euros. As a result, City can now afford to put more money on the table. Suppose such a transfer comes about: then a part will flow to Anderlecht, since Doku received his education there.”
Everyone happy then? Not quite, because there are also dangers. Both Dejonghe and Lagae fear that a bubble could arise once clubs start spending money because they rely on the Saudi petrodollars. While they can suddenly dry up: it also happened not so long ago with Russian and Chinese interest in European top football players.
Although there are some things that indicate that the Saudi situation is different. First and foremost, in China and Russia, it was mainly oligarchs who invested. In Saudi Arabia, the government seems to lend a hand: according to observers, all this fits in with the broader policy of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to put his country on the map through sport. It is generally accepted that its target is 2034, when MBS hopes to host the World Cup. So maybe there is a long-term perspective after all.
