With 530 million euros on the market, Neymar, Cristiano and Benzema and Saudi Arabia’s project to be the center of football

In Saudi Arabia you open an oil well and find a soccer megastar. This is how the sheikhs have thought about the business and are imposing their millions on the world football market. This Monday the arrival of Neymar to Al Hilal was sealed for 80 million euros, with which a new figure joins the Arab league.

Neymar is one of those discarded at PSG, along with Marco Verratti and Leandro Paredes, and he was looking for a new team. It was said that he could return to Barcelona, ​​but the millions of Al Hilal were able to add him to his project. Thus, Ney joins stars like Benzema, Kanté and Cristiano Ronaldo in saying yes to the petroeuros. There will be no glory, but his bank accounts are growing by the minute.

Neymar is the latest whim of Saudi Arabia. Faced with the refusal of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé, they did not give up on continuing to add figures and this time they took over the Brazilian, discarded at PSG, with a two-year contract.

The FIP will pay 80 million euros to PSG for his pass so that he can wear the Al Hilal shirt. But the big numbers do not stop there. According to “L’Équipe”, Ney will earn 150 million euros per season, in addition to prizes such as 80 thousand euros for each victory achieved and, above all, 500 thousand euros for each time he names Saudi Arabia on his social networks.

At 31, Neymar leaves elite football, but according to “Marca” with the desire to return. He hopes that after serving two years with the Arab club he can return to Barcelona, ​​the club where he played between 2012 and 2017, and that he intended for this season.

The 150 million euros that he will earn make him the third highest paid player in current football, below the 200 million euros that Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema earn, all in Arab football. Big difference with the salaries paid in Europe, where Kylian Mbappé earns 63 million euros at PSG, while Lionel Messi went on to earn 60 million euros at Inter Miami of the MLS.

The millionaire Public Investment Fund

In this 2023, the project that Saudi Arabia was already thinking about in 2017 is coming to fruition, when with the rise of Mohamed bin Salmán to power, the Public Investment Fund (FIP) was created to position the country as a center of sports, culture and tourism. as part of the “Vision 2030” plan. That year, local bank Jadwa Investment was hired to advise on the privatization of up to five football clubs.

In 2019 the project was already advanced and the head of the Football Federation Yasser Al-Misehal already established dates: “I don’t know if it will be 2020 or 2022 until the plan is ready.” According to the European press, the FIP has a spending potential of up to 700 billion dollars.

And by June of this year, it was ready with the privatization of eight clubs, four of them from the greats of soccer such as Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ittihad and Al Ahli, all from the Arab first division. 75% of these clubs now belong to the Arab country’s Public Investment Fund (FIP). The same fund that in October 2021 bought English Newcastle.

In January, the Public Investment Fund showed its power by signing Cristiano Ronaldo, a player who was free on the market, but who is paid 200 million euros per season by the FIP at Al Nassr. And in June he appeared with everything in the transfer market with signings such as Benzema and Kanté (Al Ittihad), Rúben Neves (Al Hilal), Mané and Brozovich (Al Nassr) and Mahrez, Mendy, Firmino and Kessié (Al Ahli). ), to which Neymar now joins for Al Hilal, former club of André Carrillo, the team that has invested the most in the current market.

Only these four clubs have made transfers worth more than 540 million euros91% of the expenses of the total of the clubs of the first division of Saudi Arabia, which in total, according to the “Transfermarkt” portal, have invested 590 million euros.

Coincidence dictates that what the four clubs under the FIP umbrella have spent is equal to what Crisriano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Neymar are going to earn in their two-year contract with Arab football. Since the salaries they receive add up to 550 million euros.

Total bet on the sport

Thus, Saudi Arabia reacted to the fact that Qatar has won the 2022 World Cup. They also have in mind to host the 2030 World Cup, but their project together with Egypt and Greece is not yet defined and they are fighting with the candidacies of the trident Spain, Portugal, Morocco and with that of the South Americans Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay.

Saudi Arabia has already managed to take the Dakar to its deserts, from 2020 with a contract until 2024 for which they paid 15 million dollars per year -in South America ASO charged up to six million for each edition-, and they also have a date since 2021 of Formula 1 with the street GP in Jeddah until 2027, while they build a circuit on the outskirts of Riyadh. He even offered 20,000 million to buy the TV rights to F1.

They are also the headquarters of Formula E, they host matches of the Spanish Super Cup and dates of the PGA Tour of golf and soon they will have a date of the Moto GP and even the ATP / WTA tennis circuit, all thanks to the millions of the Public Investment Fund.

Saudi Arabia has multiplied its commitment to soccer and its millions have marked the market this year. Now it’s time to see them on the field.

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