When Al Hilal signed Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain in August 2023, it was hailed as the latest blockbuster capture amid a rapid expansion of the Saudi Pro League.
But 18 months later, and with his contract being torn up, what could have been a transformative deal for the club and the league has made history for all the wrong reasons.
In terms of return on investment, it must go down as the worst transfer in football history – certainly the costliest deal for any club when you consider the paltry output Neymar was able to muster on the pitch.
The Brazilian, who is expected to finalise a move to Santos in the coming days, arrived for a fee of $94 million and earned an annual salary of $104m.
Based on those figures, Neymar cost Al Hilal approximately $245m in fee and wages, excluding any bonuses. In 18 months with the Saudi champions, he managed just seven appearances and scored only one goal.
That amounts to a cost of $35m for every competitive fixture in which Neymar featured. The one goal he scored came against Iran's Nassaji in the AFC Champions League in October 2023. Neymar never scored a single goal in Saudi domestic football.
He did manage to assist his teammates on two occasions, meaning that every goal or assist he produced came at a cost of $81.67m.
In all, Neymar managed just 428 minutes of competitive action for the Saudi champions. That is an astonishing $572,429 for each minute he was on the pitch, or $9,450 for every second.
The 32-year-old did enjoy a solid win percentage as a Hilal player, with him going undefeated in his seven appearances – five wins and two draws – but each of those wins came in at a staggering $49m, and each of the 17 points he helped the team gather across all competitions cost $14.4m.
If you get even more granular with performance data, the numbers are arguably even more shocking.
According to FotMob, Neymar touched the ball 392 times as an Al Hilal player, meaning each touch cost around $625,000. Known for his creative passing, Neymar was able to find a teammate on 223 occasions, with each accurate pass priced at $1.1m.
The former Barcelona star let fly at goal on 15 occasions ($16.3m per shot), with seven of those hitting the target ($35m per shot on target).
Of course, the reason behind all of these shocking numbers is Neymar's near constant battle with serious injuries during his spell in Saudi Arabia. He arrived with a pre-existing problem from his time in Paris but was beginning to show glimpses of his old self when disaster struck.
Having just about returned to fitness, he jetted off to represent Brazil in World Cup qualifiers and suffered a devastating knee injury, rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus against Uruguay in October 2023.
Clubs and their supporters share a collective dread when players depart for international duty, and Hilal's worst fears were realised when the brittle Neymar was sidelined for a full year in a match played thousands of miles away from his new home in the kingdom.
Then, last November, any hopes of salvaging his Hilal career were ended by a serious hamstring tear, with the reigning Saudi champions now opting to cut their losses.
The recruitment of a then 31-year-old player – albeit a global superstar – with Neymar's injury record was always going to be a risky move.
The numbers spelt out above show just how catastrophic it has been, and it's a transfer that will go down as a cautionary tale.
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Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
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Price: From Dh650,000
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Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
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Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
The specs
Engine: 1.4-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 180hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 250Nm at 3,00rpm
Transmission: 5-speed sequential auto
Price: From Dh139,995
On sale: now
RACE CARD
6.30pm Maiden (TB) Dh82.500 (Dirt) 1,400m
7.05pm Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 1,400m
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8.15pm Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (D) 1,900m
8.50pm UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (TB) Conditions Dh183,650 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm Dubai Trophy (TB) Conditions Dh183,650 (T) 1,200m
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What is a Ponzi scheme?
A fraudulent investment operation where the scammer provides fake reports and generates returns for old investors through money paid by new investors, rather than through ligitimate business activities.
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Conflict, drought, famine
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Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
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Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
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Best Actress Maha Alemi, Sofia
Best Actor Mohamed Dhrif, Weldi
Best Screenplay Meryem Benm’Barek, Sofia
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Best Director Nadine Labaki, Capernaum
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Saturday's results
West Ham 2-3 Tottenham
Arsenal 2-2 Southampton
Bournemouth 1-2 Wolves
Brighton 0-2 Leicester City
Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool
Everton 0-2 Norwich City
Watford 0-3 Burnley
Manchester City v Chelsea, 9.30pm
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
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Specs
Engine: 3.0L twin-turbo V6
Gearbox: 10-speed automatic
Power: 405hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 562Nm at 3,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 11.2L/100km
Price: From Dh292,845 (Reserve); from Dh320,145 (Presidential)
On sale: Now
'Laal Kaptaan'
Director: Navdeep Singh
Stars: Saif Ali Khan, Manav Vij, Deepak Dobriyal, Zoya Hussain
Rating: 2/5
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Read more about the coronavirus
Sri Lanka-India Test series schedule
- 1st Test India won by 304 runs at Galle
- 2nd Test Thursday-Monday at Colombo
- 3rd Test August 12-16 at Pallekele
