Neymar Jr. will charge the amount of five million euros a year in exchange for having exemplary behavior, being punctual, not questioning the tactical approaches of the coach and not publicly criticizing PSG professionals and fans ». The ethical clause or bonus is one of the many conditions that overlap in the Brazilian's complex contract with Paris Saint Germain, which has been sent with part of its content crossed out to the Spanish Justice and to which EL MUNDO has had access.
The sum of amounts guarantees the player an income of 30 million euros tax free per year for five seasons, plus an optional sixth under the same conditions if the player wishes. The club also takes care of the fiscal contingencies of the payment of the termination clause.
This document, which PSG refuses to hand over to a judge in Barcelona and that has been requested from FIFA, is currently one of the best kept secrets in world football.
The mysterious agreement has been declassified by the Neymar family in the meetings held with their interlocutors this summer and is the starting point in the negotiations that Barcelona has fought and has met Real Madrid to bring back to Spain the second highest paid player of the world, after Lionel Messi.
Neymar's story is that of a humble child from São Paulo, endowed with a supernatural talent for football, put at risk by the father's excessive appetite. The secret figures demanded by the parent for the player's return from Paris are discovered in the reconstruction of this thriller, which reveals how much it is worth signing the Brazilian today, how much it cost in the past, but also the reasons why finally it has not been possible to sign for the two great Spanish clubs.
How much does Neymar really cost the Qatari holding company that supports the PSG? To the income stipulated in his contract must be added 13 million euros apart that the N&N company, managed by his father, perceives as image rights directly from Qatar, where the owners of what Javier Tebas calls the «club-state are located », As the envoys of clubs interested in established contacts have known. This is the first hidden clause, which more than triggers its revenues above the barrier of 40 million euros per year, double what Cristiano Ronaldo perceived during his last season at Real Madrid.
But after the first surprise the second one gets in the way, which transforms the operation into an almost unattainable company. Neymar da Silva, father and agent of the footballer, a mediocre former player turned mechanic, who is said to have even started selling toilets in Brazil and who negotiators hate for their ways, has become an inseparable figure of his son. He usually participates in the operations with the perception of 10% of his son's net salary, 5% of the gross or 10% of the transfer price. Ney Pai, turned into the shadow of his son, also establishes for himself a signing bonus of between 40 and 47 million for his efforts, as set by himself.
An insurmountable obstacle to decide the fates of Neymar Jr., whom he directs at will with an iron hand. Both sports and even legal, reaching some of the most prestigious Spanish lawyers in the framework of the multiple judicial and tax fronts that lurk.
Paying the father is the difference between having or not having the footballer. Real Madrid knows it well, which came to sign, on June 5, 2011, a pre-contract with the player in the offices of the agent Wagner Ribeiro, in Sao Paulo, which ended up turned into wet paper. When Real Madrid had done it, the father broke the agreement without moving in favor of someone who complied with his requests. Sandro Rosell, then president of Barcelona, agreed to the parent's claims. It was the first great betrayal of the Neymar, who have transformed the player's career into a permanently open auction.
The sum of all the aforementioned items plus the 222 million euros contained in its termination clause and that the PSG paid for its signing to Barça, raised the cost of the Neymar operation for the French club above 600 million euros . Therefore, hiring him now means starting from the same cost and ending up around 700 million euros in five years, due to the increase in his salary.
The PSG initially pronounced setting the transfer of the player at 300 million exact. He added that he only wanted money and not players, he hinted that dispensing with his star was a humiliation and that he was going to put all possible difficulties. «You are not willing to pay 300? No problem, 290 », the French club replied to the first change in mid-May.
The negotiations continued to open the option of cushioning that amount with the inclusion of soccer players, but Leonardo Nascimento, former player and sports director of Parisian PSG, explained his intentions in private circles: "We have plenty of players, what we want is money." As interesting options, in the French club they valued the Madrid fans Vinicius, Keylor Navas and James, and the Barca Dembélé and Semedo. Bale, the piece that was most clearly on the market, did not interest them.
THE NEGOTIATION.
However, the great bid began more than a year ago with winks among all those involved, which turned the talks into a game of mus. Neymar's father repeatedly addressed Josep Maria Bartomeu. He phoned half a dozen times to tell him that his son wanted to return, eager to re-train with Messi and Luis Suarez, his inseparable, the trident of Barcelona. "Neymar is very sorry, the PSG has no sports project and wants to play for Barça," he pleaded. The Barca president even used WhatsApps messages from Neymar da Silva to convince the Dutchman Frenkie De Jong to sign for the Barca club instead of for the Parisian team: «Look, this is what can happen if you sign for the PSG ».
The initial cordiality of Barça, which even publicly denied the contacts uncovered by this newspaper, took shape at the end of the season, when the franchise player of the squad, Messi, pressed the president to the maximum to activate his return. "With him we will be more competitive, he is a player who withstands the pressure very well and we need him," they moved imperatively, adding that they had already spoken with him and would force his return.
Although the goal of Neymar Jr. was always Barcelona, Ney Pai, faithful to his unmistakable style, was also offered to Real Madrid. He even tried Juventus of Turin, given the increasing discomfort of the player in France, with the fans against and the press in a very critical position with Neymar and the model implanted by the president, the Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaïfi.
"Neymar said enough, he wanted to go out at all costs," says a former collaborator. «He has realized that the atmosphere he had in Barcelona is not going to have him anywhere and he does not like Paris».
If in Barcelona Messi and Suarez personally demanded the return of the Brazilian to Bartomeu, in the capital of Spain Florentino Pérez awaited an express pronouncement of the player, in which he expressed his desire to play in Madrid, to save the doubts that existed in the club and put the operation on the table. «If a player wants to play in Madrid, let him say so», he was transferred. However, it never occurred. Unlike. Neymar's statement in which he said that one of the best moments of his career had been 6-1 against PSG at the Camp Nou made his wishes clear.
Barcelona hastened the alternatives with the PSG until reaching a final and non-negotiable price of 180 million more players to be determined. However, Dembélé and Semedo were not inclined. In parallel, Madrid faced a deep internal reflection in which Neymar ended up being discarded for several reasons: the high cost of the operation, the distrust of the father, the lack of a pronouncement of the footballer and the background of his dissolute personal life, although the accusation of rape that weighed on the Brazilian had been dismantled.
But along with all of them, the doubts that moved him to the club about the surgical operation to which the soccer player underwent the fifth metatarsal last year were added. After the marasmus of figures, the most unknown element emerges here until the moment of how many have thwarted the multimillion dollar operation.
One of the doctors outside of Real Madrid, who has intervened footballers of the squad and who has an undeniable prestige, was consulted by the club. The answer was that it was a “high risk” signing, given the background and available medical information. In addition, with that table, it would be impossible to find an insurer to cover the risks of an operation with a cost close to 700 million for a period of five years.
Barcelona had the same information, but Bartomeu, pressed by Messi, decided to move forward in search of gathering the most powerful and effective attack on the planet. While the Barca leader has a short future in the presidency, since he will not be able to return to the re-election by statutory mandate, in Madrid it is the statutes that make it very difficult to rival Florentino, delivered, today, to the project that crowns his legacy : the Bernabéu of the future.
THE OPERATION IN BRAZIL.
The question is that Neymar fractured the fifth metatarsal of the right foot, in addition to breaking the left lateral ankle ligament, in a match against Olympique de Marseille, in March 2018. The injury prevented him from playing the second leg round. of the Champions League against Real Madrid, which eliminated PSG in Paris.
The father returned to interpose between all the experts and imposed that his son was operated in Brazil, in front of the dissenting voices of the medical services of the Parisian club. He was operated by the doctor of the Brazilian team, Rodrigo Lasmar, in Belo Horizonte. According to part of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), "a screw associated with a bone graft placed at the level of the injury of the fifth right metatarsal" was implanted . Of all the options, it was the most conservative procedure, aimed at a full recovery that allowed him to play the World Cup in Russia, his great goal. The PSG said goodbye to its star at the key moment of the season.
Before the year of the intervention was completed, in January 2019, during a match against Strasbourg, Neymar was injured again in the same area, and there all the alarms went off. PSG doctors wondered if it had been operated correctly and proposed that it go through the operating room again.
The doubts of the French doctors are coincident with those expressed by the Spanish doctors consulted. The relapse may be indicative that the fracture has not consolidated, and one of the causes could be that the screw inserted is small, inadequate. Also, according to the doctors who transmitted their information to Spanish clubs, there could be a mechanical factor, due to stress in the foot support. Operating the fracture does not imply correcting the latter. The rupture of ligaments that occurred before the Copa América and that prevented him, finally, from playing the tournament, as was the desire of the player and his father, was on the same foot.
At this point, to the direct question of whether 300 million and more than 30 per year can be paid by this player, the answer of the doctor consulted by Madrid was textually: «The risk is very high». The proposed option of being subjected to a review in one place and with neutral means did not guarantee anything either.
The risks have been suffered so far by the PSG, since Neymar has been absent in the key games, such as the return of Champions against Madrid, in 2018, or the tie against Manchester United, in 2019. The Brazilian did not arrive in Paris to win French leagues. The number of his absences due to injury doubles those he had in Barcelona, so for PSG his hiring, until today, has been ruinous.
Some of the people who have made the contacts have concluded that, really, Al-Khelaïfi was never in a hurry to sell to Neymar: “For him it is not a matter of money but of pride; and getting rid of Neymar is a humiliation ».
THE AMBITION OF THE FATHER.
The controversial figure of the father is another obstacle that has always caused reluctance in Madrid. In fact, Neymar da Silva was the one who, unilaterally, broke the agreement with the white club to sign his son before arriving in Barcelona. The player himself stamped his signature, in June 2011, in São Paulo, on a pre-contract that had to be formalized before August 20, 2011, according to the tests to which EL MUNDO has had access. It established the conditions of its connection to Madrid for five seasons, from 2011/12 to 2016/17. During each of the exercises, he would enter five million euros net, plus one million if he was among the three candidates for the Golden Ball and one more if he won the trophy. The image rights would be shared at 50% and its termination clause would be set at 200 million.
Then, with 19 years, Neymar charged in the Santos 150,000 reais (33,000 euros) gross per week, so the offer of Madrid quintupled his income. In case of unilaterally breaking his relationship with Santos, the player had to pay 35 million euros to the club until December 31, 2011, and 45 million as of January 1, 2012.
Madrid was willing to pay the second amount, plus a friendly between both clubs, in which the player would play part time with each team. In turn, it established the commissions: 4.5 million for Wagner Ribeiro, the agent; 2.2 for Pini Zahavi, his agent in Europe, plus a similar amount for the lawyer. Madrid sent the head of its medical services to Brazil to conduct the review of the footballer. When everything was tied, however, Neymar Senior said "no" and Neymar Junior, as always, nodded, despite signing.
Madrid still had one last contact with the father, in Miami, where he discovered that conditions had changed. He did not enter the game, considering that it implied "mafia forms."
If the operation proposed by Madrid amounted to a cost of 95 million, which included the transfer of 45 million established by Santos, Barcelona ended up investing up to 205, after an impersonation of agreements and contracts disclosed by EL MUNDO and subsequently documented by the Spanish Justice.
The player would charge 35 million net, for the 25 offered by Madrid, in five years. In addition, 2.5 image pathway in Brazil, 2.7 in variables and one million through the Foundation. To this, the 40 million must be added to the N&N company, founded by the father.
Upon arrival in Barcelona, Neymar Sr. recruited the player in the upper part of the city, where he spent time in front of the Play Station with friends he brought from Brazil, known as the Toiss .
At the club he was warned that he must be submissive with his great star. "In each chicken coop there is a rooster and here the rooster is called Messi," he was warned verbatim, to which he applied until he repeatedly repeated his subordination in the press conferences. He did the same with the convenience of learning Catalan, for which he enrolled in a course. He also complied with the warnings for his crests, which were not "Barça aesthetics" and soon were suspicious of his relationship with Alves, with whom he met again in Paris.
Nobody knows if Neymar's career would have been different if when he was tested in the Real Madrid children, with 14 years, the Chamartín club had decided to pay the 60,000 euros that Wagner Ribeiro asked him to stay. He came to have a record in the Madrid Football Federation. Nor if he had accepted what he signed in São Paulo, five years later, or had followed in Barcelona, the only place where he admits that he was sportingly happy, while frustrations accompanied him with his selection.
The explanations must be given by his father, who talks about his son's money as if he were dressed shortly. In the last negotiations with Barça, he refused to withdraw the demand for the premium of the last renewal that is still pending trial. He said "that's his" and he wasn't going to quit.
"Ney doesn't know what he earns," he says in the book Conversation between Pai e Filho, published in Brazil. The question is what Neymar really knows, with the Pai tattoo on the skin, of a life that only makes sense when he drives the ball with the intention of reaching the goal, but with the risk of ending up in the abyss.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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