It’s official. Brazilian superstar Neymar has become the latest footballer to sign up for the Saudi Pro League, having been bought by Al-Hilal from Paris Saint-Germain for around £77 million. He has penned a two-year contract with the club which will see him pocket a staggering £129.2m a year.
It is very obvious why the winger has opted to make this move at this point in his career, but at 31, it’s arguable that he could still have a good few years playing at the highest level. If only there had been any desire from his side to do so.
As soon as the Saudi Pro League started to pick up some of the big names across Europe over the summer one could confidently predict that Neymar would be one to join them. The financial gain is of course the main reason, but it looks as though the Brazilian icon is easing his way into retirement.
READ MORE:
He has spent the last six years at Parc des Princes with Les Parisiens, having completed a record £190m move from Barcelona to escape the large shadow of Lionel Messi. Neymar has been a superstar in his own right to a degree. From his dazzling emergence at Santos in his homeland, to his glittering years at Camp Nou, the attacker emerged in a period during which two of the sport’s greatest icons in Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo continued to thrive and hog the spotlight for so long.
It can’t have been easy. No matter how many glorious things the Brazilian did in the famous colours of Barca, Messi was always the focus. He departed the Spanish giants with two La Liga titles and a Champions League but, when 2017 came around, he wanted to be the star man.
At the time it was going to take an extortionate amount of money to pry him away from Barcelona, and PSG were the only club with the resources willing to pull it off. His arrival in the French capital was a signal of intent from PSG, and it was expected to be the difference in helping the club secure their first Champions League title - something that they are still waiting on to this day.
Despite contributing similar figures for goal and assists in Paris, Neymar quickly realised that the eyes of the world were still fixated on the two deities in La Liga. While they were continuing to break records and defy Father Time, Neymar was picking up injuries on a regular basis and experiencing problems with consistency.
He’s now left the club with five Ligue 1 titles but, in the grand scheme of things, French football is not given the same credit as other major European leagues and, in a way, it was surprising to see him stay in France as long as he did.
Perhaps he fell out of love with the game due to not being perceived as the very best, but he has still led a marvellous career in Europe and will unquestionably go down as one of the greats in his generation, just not the greatest. He may see that as a bad thing but when you’re going up against two of the best to ever play the game in the same time period, there’s not a lot you can do.
The biggest question that will be asked about Neymar when he does eventually retire is what if he had been given the opportunity to play in the likes of the Premier League or Bundesliga and would we have seen the same hunger that he showed in the earlier days of his career. It’s telling that he wasn’t deemed to be part of his former Barcelona boss Luis Enrique’s plans for the new campaign at PSG, which helped to accelerate his departure.
Neymar may just be 31, which for a lot of players in recent years is still considered quite young, but there must be a reason why Luis Enrique didn’t think that the Brazil star had what it takes to perform at this level any longer. The switch to Al-Hilal made sense for all parties and it remains to be seen what might happen with Neymar after his two years in Saudi Arabia are up. You wouldn’t hold your breath to see him seek a return to Europe and it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see him bring the curtain down on his career elsewhere after this gargantuan final payday.
All we know is that for all his bright performances and contributions to the game, one can’t help but feel that he hasn’t quite lived up to the expectation that the world had for him all those years ago when he was the teenage sensation at Santos.
