As football goes more and more away from reality, you do wonder what has happened to the beautiful game at times. The fact that a player, who only signed a new contract a few months ago, can manufacture a move, and the fact that his father will take home millions and millions from the deal, however you look at it, leaves a sour taste in anybody's mouth.
At the end of the day, the cynical ones will tell you football is a business and the Neymar to PSG transfer is just that – a club trying to get to that exalted Real Madrid, Barcelona level, with the owners from Qatar willing to pay anything necessary to do that.
For the player, everyone will tell you, it was about moving out of the considerably large shadow of Lionel Messi, one of the greatest players of all-time and The man at Barcelona.
But then, when you read that Neymar is about to earn €30 million a year after tax (€45 million before), which will double the salary he earns at Barcelona, a salary he only signed on earlier this year, you know it wasn't just about moving away from Messi and being his own man, it was, as it always is, about the money.
And a large chunk of money will also go to Neymar's representatives, chief of them being his own father Neymar Sr. PSG are due to pay €38 million for facilitating the Neymar deal.
It is that, which really makes you shake your head and go into the "what has happened to football" mode.
When Mino Raiola earned millions and millions and millions from the Paul Pogba to Manchester United transfer (a transfer of €105 million, which is currently the world record fee), you felt the same way, and now, it just seems to be getting worse and worse and worse.
At the end of it all, PSG will end up paying over €500 million in transfer fees, agent fees, wages and more for this Neymar transfer to go through, according to The Guardian. The biggest of them all will be the straight €222 million that PSG will have to pay Barcelona to activate his buyout clause.
If not for that buyout clause, Neymar would still be a Barcelona player, contemplating how he can get out of Messi's shadow with performances on the pitch.
However, thanks to that clause, which every player in Spain must have, Neymar is set to become a PSG player, even if Barcelona, when they inserted that amount, thought such a ridiculous fee would never be paid.
However, such is the high stakes involved in football now and the amount the owners and clubs will go to, to try and become relevant that no fee, anymore, becomes unachievable.
Real Madrid are willing to pay €180 million to buy an 18-year-old from Monaco. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, usually so prudent with the club's money, was also ready to fork out a world record fee for Kylian Mbappe.
Such is the craziness involved in the transfer window now, and while the football on the field will take charge from next week, you do wish that football was about just that – about Messi weaving his way past five defenders and placing a left-footed shot into the bottom corner; about Cristiano Ronaldo rising higher than Michael Jordan to fire in a bullet header; about Neymar cutting in from the left and curling a wonder strike; about a player playing football and bringing joy to the supporters with his/her skills on the field.
However, modern football is also about this -- €222 million to just buy a player. Insane stuff, but also the sad/wonderful/crazy (depending on your point of view) reality.
