Outrage at the cost involved in bringing Neymar from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain F.C is ricocheting around sport’s sections of media outlets like a rotten egg spewing eggy fumes onto the aghast expressions of journalists who cannot help but wag their fingers, disapprovingly. The general consensus is that the money is absurd and this must stop or the world will be soon taken over by a Satanic army disguised in human football kits.
Putting aside the moral qualm that stem from the fact that the money used to purchase Neymar is blood money provided by PSG owners Qater Sport Investments. For a team with a profile like PSG in a league considered less glamorous and valuable than counterpart leagues in England, Germany, Italy and Spain, 222 million euro is a bargain. Make no mistake this was a coup d’état. Barcelona are bloodied and dizzy. They did not expect or plan for this. The havoc of losing their most marketable and charismatic player. They’re not just losing an elite player, they’re strengthening another team. They simply did not want to sell, for now they have unwittingly let one of the few elite players in the world that was in their possession out into the wilderness with the potential to hurt them, to what extent only time will tell. One such scenario where he could hurt them is if they face PSG in the Champions League. Another nightmarish scenario would be if their eternal rivals Real Madrid brought his incumbency at PSG to an end so he could succeed Ronaldo.
The problem with those assessing this transfer fee is that they are assessing Neymar as just a football player. They are missing the point that Neymar is not just a football player. It’s more than just his performances on the field. It is his performances off the pitch that matter just as much. Neymar is a superstar with a world brand. Neymar is a superstar that acts like a superstar that is willing, comfortable and even enjoys the limelight. He has already appeared in Hollywood film xXx: Return of Xander Cage playing himself. His brand is not limited to football. This is the David Beckham Effect. A player whose ability is usurped by his marketability which happens to be much more profitable. Everyone has heard of David Beckham even if they know nothing about football. While in comparison Neymar’s ex-teammate and football superstar Messi is a reluctant superstar, shy and awkward in-front of cameras with clearly no intention of going through the lengths of incessant promotion as Neymar is to market his brand. If Neymar is at your football club it means your club and the brand of that club is in the spotlight and in sight of many potential money trees. So calculating the value of Neymar is not straightforward as it is for other players.
If money was no obstacle there is not a team on earth that would say no to signing Neymar. The value of signing Neymar goes beyond the value of signing an elite player purely based on gambling on future performances. The signing signifies that PSG can sign a genuine Ballon d’or contender attracting other elite players who in the past would of turned up their nose at going to a lesser league. It means the monetary value of the club and the popularity of the brand of the club around the world will also skyrocket. We cannot yet put an exact price on this increase of value for the club, but no doubt it far exceeds the 222 million euro transfer fee. Neymar in short is a bargain, one that we will be reminded of time and time again as the status of PSG grows in the coming years and Barcelona rue their loss of football’s foremost superstar in the era of social media.
Nathan Eat World 