Before the world turned fearful, of a pandemic that takes lives and dissolves future planning, a major festival was in the Paris diary for the last weekend in August. It would have celebrated the 50th anniversary of the founding of Paris Saint-Germain. Its centrepiece was to have been an All-Stars match between legends of the past and the present team.
Into which category the most stellar footballer – ranked by price, and perhaps by talent – of PSG’s history would have fitted was the subject of some speculation. Neymar, the €222million (Dh904m) man, has spent as much of the last year trying to become an ex-PSG footballer as he has living up to the role of figurehead for the ambitious French champions.
Last week, Neymar learned from his mansion in Rio de Janeiro, 6,000 miles from Paris, that he had won his third successive Ligue 1 title. He was far away, detached, because he flew to Brazil as the Covid-19 crisis reached Europe. He had been instructed to ready himself to come back until the French government declared last Tuesday there would be no organised team sport in France until at least September.
The 2019-20 Ligue 1 season has now been declared closed, and PSG, 12 points clear at the top of the table when matches were suspended in March, made champions. A PSG footballer can expect to be named Player of the Year, too, for this abbreviated campaign. Restless or not, Neymar’s name must feature in deliberations.
He scored 13 of PSG’s 75 Ligue 1 goals; he assisted another six. Set those figures against the fact that Neymar missed 12 of PSG’s 27 games because of injury or suspension, and they become startlingly impressive.
And set those figures against the atmosphere surrounding Neymar last August, when he and his entourage had made it clear he wanted to return to the Barcelona who reluctantly sold him in 2017, when PSG paid his €222m buyout clause, and they are a reminder of why Neymar carries the highest price-tag of any footballer ever bought and sold.
Back at the beginning of 2019-2020, banners at the Parc des Princes, prepared by PSG’s own supporters, were wishing injury on the game’s most expensive player.
The scorn would fade, though, and the cheers gradually returned, the last of them heard from outside the PSG stadium during the eerie last episode of the pre-Covid-19 shutdown, when Neymar, with a masterly and disciplined performance, helped PSG defeat Borussia Dortmund, earning a place in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The match took place behind close doors, but around the walls of the stadium supporters gathered noisily in their thousands, in defiance of police advice.
Mission Champions League
The Champions League is the competition Neymar, 28, was explicitly brought to PSG to win. He won it with Barcelona, but has twice been knocked out at the last 16 stage with PSG, and reacted so angrily when Manchester United eliminated the Parisians last year that he began this season with a two-match Uefa suspension, during which his father and senior advisor, Neymar senior, announced that negotiations with Barcelona for his return there were “still open”, further aggravating PSG fans.
Neymar is not on Barcelona's priority list
Until the great lockdown, those negotiations had not closed. Nor had momentum for the transfer. Lionel Messi, the Barcelona captain, would like Neymar back at Camp Nou; Neymar has told PSG, where his contract runs until 2022, he would like to go. But the landscape is so altered by global events that the move now seems utterly fanciful.
PSG will not bear a huge loss on their investment, not least after a shortened season when Neymar, absent for almost half the Ligue 1 matches, has been earning around €600,000 a week.
But a recession, post pandemic, is inevitable. "Nobody can any longer spend €222m," Barcelona head coach Quique Setien told Gazzetta dello Sport. Javier Tebas, the head of Spain's La Liga, where Barca are one of several clubs to have imposed heavy salary cuts during the sport's closedown added: "Neymar is not on Barcelona's priority list."
PSG are not shielded from the economic shortfalls that the suspension of matches – and in their case, the abandoning of a quarter of the domestic season – means but nor are they obliged to cash in on one of their major playing assets, Neymar or Kylian Mbappe, to cover losses, if and when the transfer market opens.
They also hold out hope for a happy ending to a season that the club and Neymar began in such vexed circumstances. There may be no All-Star Golden Jubilee match at the end of August, but if the coronavirus crisis eases sufficiently, there might well be a final of the postponed Champions League that very weekend.
PSG intend to be in it, even if they must, because of the French government ban, play their quarter-final and any semi-final ‘home’ legs outside France. That may just suit their restless superstar, the man who, for a long time, has wanted to be playing his club football somewhere other than Paris.
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
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
Jebel Ali card
1.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,400m
2.15pm: Handicap Dh90,000 1,400m
2.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,000m
3.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,200m
3.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,600m
4.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,600m
4.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,800m
The National selections
1.45pm: Cosmic Glow
2.15pm: Karaginsky
2.45pm: Welcome Surprise
3.15pm: Taamol
3.45pm: Rayig
4.15pm: Chiefdom
4.45pm: California Jumbo
Cherry
Directed by: Joe and Anthony Russo
Starring: Tom Holland, Ciara Bravo
1/5
'Project Power'
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback
Director: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman
Rating: 3.5/5
if you go
Company%20profile
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UAE central contracts
Full time contracts
Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid
Part time contracts
Aryan Lakra, Ansh Tandon, Karthik Meiyappan, Rahul Bhatia, Alishan Sharafu, CP Rizwaan, Basil Hameed, Matiullah, Fahad Nawaz, Sanchit Sharma
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
The specs
Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 217hp at 5,750rpm
Torque: 300Nm at 1,900rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh130,000
On sale: now
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Friday
Granada v Real Betis (9.30pm)
Valencia v Levante (midnight)
Saturday
Espanyol v Alaves (4pm)
Celta Vigo v Villarreal (7pm)
Leganes v Real Valladolid (9.30pm)
Mallorca v Barcelona (midnight)
Sunday
Atletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid (4pm)
Real Madrid v Eibar (9.30pm)
Real Sociedad v Osasuna (midnight)
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 4/5
The biog
Name: Sarah Al Senaani
Age: 35
Martial status: Married with three children - aged 8, 6 and 2
Education: Masters of arts in cultural communication and tourism
Favourite movie: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Favourite hobbies: Art and horseback ridding
Occupation: Communication specialist at a government agency and the owner of Atelier
Favourite cuisine: Definitely Emirati - harees is my favourite dish
MATCH INFO
Karnataka Tuskers 110-5 (10 ovs)
Tharanga 48, Shafiq 34, Rampaul 2-16
Delhi Bulls 91-8 (10 ovs)
Mathews 31, Rimmington 3-28
Karnataka Tuskers win by 19 runs
Wenger's Arsenal reign in numbers
1,228 - games at the helm, ahead of Sunday's Premier League fixture against West Ham United.
704 - wins to date as Arsenal manager.
3 - Premier League title wins, the last during an unbeaten Invincibles campaign of 2003/04.
1,549 - goals scored in Premier League matches by Wenger's teams.
10 - major trophies won.
473 - Premier League victories.
7 - FA Cup triumphs, with three of those having come the last four seasons.
151 - Premier League losses.
21 - full seasons in charge.
49 - games unbeaten in the Premier League from May 2003 to October 2004.
About Okadoc
Date started: Okadoc, 2018
Founder/CEO: Fodhil Benturquia
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Healthcare
Size: (employees/revenue) 40 staff; undisclosed revenues recording “double-digit” monthly growth
Funding stage: Series B fundraising round to conclude in February
Investors: Undisclosed
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
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Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
RESULTS
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UK%20-%20UAE%20Trade
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Company%20profile
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