Neymar to Saudi Pro League Al-Hilal Confirmed

After making an agreement with Neymar, Al-Hilal hit the hammer with PSG. According to information released this Monday (14th) by the French newspaper L’Équipe, the last details for the transfer of the Brazilian player to Saudi Arabia should be completed in the next few hours.

This is the end of a long soap opera that “should mark the recent history of PSG”, indicates the website of the sports newspaper. The transaction is valued at €80m but could rise to just under €100m including some bonuses.

L’Équipe also adds that Neymar should travel to Saudi Arabia this Monday and have a medical appointment with the Al-Hilal team on Tuesday (15). The Brazilian, who has already accepted a two-year contract, will compete in the Saudi championship this season. After making a deal with Neymar, Al-Hilal hit the hammer with PSG. According to information released this Monday (14th) by the French newspaper L’Équipe, the last details for the transfer of the Brazilian player to Saudi Arabia should be completed in the next few hours.

This is the end of a long soap opera that “should mark PSG’s recent history”, indicates the sports newspaper’s website. The transaction is valued at €80m but could rise to just under €100m including some bonuses.

L’Équipe also adds that Neymar should travel to Saudi Arabia this Monday and have a medical appointment with the Al-Hilal team on Tuesday (15). The Brazilian, who has already accepted a two-year contract, will compete in the Saudi championship this season.

Al-Hillal will pay the striker €320 million (R$1.7 billion) in the period: the biggest signing made by a non-European team in history. Apparently, a big party will be held on Wednesday (16) for the presentation of the star player at the club, the most popular in Saudi Arabia.

Neymar played 173 matches for PSG. He was met on 8 August by Louis Campos, PSG’s football adviser and new coach Luis Enrique, to be told that the team would no longer have him this season.

Bought for €222m from Barcelona in August 2017, Neymar arrived in Paris with star status, but never managed to lift the Champions League trophy for the club – PSG’s number 1 goal.

Neymar leaves, Mbappe stays

French striker Kylian Mbappé, who has been sidelined for several weeks by the PSG board, has been reinstated in the main squad, the club announced on Sunday (13). “After very constructive and positive conversations between Paris Saint-Germain and Kylian Mbappé […], the player has been reinstated in the group for training this morning,” the Parisian team said in a statement.

Mbappé and PSG have been at arm’s length since the striker informed the board that he wanted to leave the club after the end of his contract, which ends in June 2024, without renewing it. The condition was refused by the directors, who started to consider selling the player already in this transfer window so that he would not leave for free.

The arm wrestling between the two sides extended and the club decided to remove Mbappé from the main squad, leaving him out of the pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea. French Championship, which drew 0-0 with Lorient, last Saturday (13).

It was the club’s president, Nasser al-Khelaïfi, who announced to the team that the striker was back: “Kylian is back”, he indicated at the training center in Poissy, in the Paris region. He also assured the team that Mbappé “is extremely motivated” and will remain so throughout this season at PSG.

What prompted the “reconciliation”

“It’s likely that both sides realized they were going to lose,” journalist Philippe Doucet, a commentator for Radio Foot Internationale and Canal+, tells RFI. “PSG tarnished its image and was lost in aggressive communication towards its player. And, despite everything, Mbappé also had a lot to lose because spending a season on the bench, while he has the French national team, has the Olympic Games getting closer, it didn’t make much sense”, he evaluates.

On a “reconciliation” between the star and the club, Doucet is skeptical. “We are talking about business, not romanticism. What counted was the interest of both parties”, emphasizes the commentator.

The club guarantees that the French star is committed not to leave free, to have obtained an agreement in principle and that details about his stay will come soon. So far, neither the player nor his team has reacted.

For Doucet, Mbappé may have made some kind of concession, adding a clause to the commitment and allowing him to leave the team. “All this is communication. PSG don’t need money,” he points out. “We felt that the battle of egos was the most important thing in this story”, he evaluates.