Documents from Football Leaks lift the lid on the real cost and the dealings behind the record-breaking transfer in the summer of 2017 of Brazilian football star Neymar from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). Revealed here by Mediapart, they tell of massive commission payments, up-to-the-wire negotiations that almost collapsed amid a tetchy moment of bluff, tax dilemmas and the club’s suspicions that some of those accompanying the player to Paris were in undeclared employment. Meanwhile, despite the capture of one of the world’s most celebrated players, the transfer appears to represent a financial abyss for PSG.
Neymar Junior has become the most expensive player in the history of football following his transfer to French club PSG from FC Barcelona in 2017, but exactly how expensive that move was has never been fully detailed. PSG bought the Brazilian on August 3rd 21017, in a transaction that saw the French club settle the huge sum of his buyout clause amounting to 222 million euros.
