Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu "hit out at Neymar's lack of loyalty to the club on Monday" and criticized the Brazilian for "staying silent" until his world record €222M ($261.8M) move to Paris St. Germain, according to Richard Martin of REUTERS. Bartomeu said, "His way of doing things was not the best, it was not the behavior we expect of one of our players. We were always clear and we would have liked a bit more clarity from him. Values are very important to us and players need to feel like they are at the best club in the world." Bartomeu added that the club was now "ready for life without Neymar" (REUTERS, 8/7).
COMMENTARY: In London, Oliver Kay wrote for all the attempts to depict this as a transfer driven by Neymar's "desperation to escape Lionel Messi's shadow at Barcelona" -- a personal view is that he has "flourished spectacularly, rather than withered, in that shadow" -- or to "enhance his prospects of winning the Ballon d'Or, which the Brazilian has always rightly said should not be a primary ambition in a team sport," there is "something far, far bigger at play here." Of course "the Qataris in charge of PSG want on-pitch success -- and, of course, Neymar's arrival should improve a team" which "fell well short" of its "recent standards in the Champions League and Ligue 1 last season" -- but "reflected glory is merely a means to a far greater end." As with the Abu Dhabi-driven project at Man City, "only seemingly much more so," the Qatari vision is about "trying to win friends and influence people in a highly uncertain geopolitical climate" (LONDON TIMES, 8/2). ESPN.com's Gabriele Marcotti opined we are "not just talking the most expensive footballer of all time;" we are "talking a guy who cost more than a quarter of a billion dollars." That is Paul Pogba plus Cristiano Ronaldo with "enough left over to cover their wages until Christmas." This "is not, as some have suggested, the end of football as we know it." It is "either a bold, game-changing move" from PSG "or a colossal blunder by folks with more money than sense or, perhaps, something in between." This is "probably more of a psychological setback than a footballing one." On the pitch, Barcelona can "likely reload pretty quickly without Neymar." Where "it does hurt is inside" (ESPN.com, 8/3).
'SEISMIC EFFECTS': SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's Avi Creditor wrote the move "creates seismic effects across Europe." The impact will "clearly be felt heavily" in Ligue 1, La Liga and the Champions League, "and the trickle-down effect could hit a handful of other clubs, depending on how Barcelona and PSG proceed from here." Nevertheless, Barcelona cannot "look back." It has a windfall of over $260M "to play with now, and it must invest wisely." Messi and Luis Suarez, "who can do plenty to ensure the club still challenges both domestically and in Europe, need a new third musketeer, and it has to be one ready for a complementary role while also not shying from the spotlight" (SI, 8/4). In L.A., Kevin Baxter observed when PSG agreed to pay Neymar's transfer fee, "it seemed to strain the bounds of economics, logic and common sense." Yet that price, more than double the previous record for a transfer, "was simply a down payment to get Neymar out of the final four years of a deal with his Spanish team." PSG had to spend an additional $350M in salary and bonuses "to sign Neymar to a five-year contract that will make him the highest-paid player ever in a team sport." Add "it up, and PSG spent well over half a billion dollars on a striker who never led his previous team in scoring" (L.A. TIMES, 8/5).
