Spanish clubs place buy-out clauses on players, and on the marquee names they’re absolutely mammoth figures.
Lionel Messi’s is reportedly just over £350m, Cristiano Ronaldo’s is over £1billion (!), according to his agent Jorge Mendes, and Neymar’s is understood to be £210m.
The figures act as deterrents to rival clubs bidding for star players, because no-one would actually pay so much money for the players, no matter how great they are, right?
Well, according to L’Equipe, Paris Saint-Germain had agreed to pay the buy-out clause on Neymar’s contract, worth £170m, before he signed a new deal with Barca in July, but the deal collapsed.
The French club were reportedly also prepared to pay Neymar £22m a year, but were put off the deal by the Brazilian’s demand that PSG settle his (mostly tax) debts worth a reported £40m.
Neymar’s agent claimed earlier this year that his client turned down offers from both PSG and Manchester United to stay at Barcelona
“He was very close to PSG. He would have earned €40m [£33.8] a year, free [after tax],” Wayne Ribeiro said.
“Neymar was also close to a move to Manchester United. But he renewed his contract for less money with Barcelona, because he wanted to stay in Barcelona.”
Either way, we’re sure he’s not short of a few quid, and he now gets to continue playing alongside Messi and Luis Suarez.
You can catch up on the latest episode of JOE’s Football Friday Live right here…
