Biggest flop in history? The staggering cost per appearance of Neymar’s time at Al-Hilal

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Heading back to Brazil? 

©IMAGO

On Tuesday Saudi Arabian club  Al-Hilal confirmed that star player Neymar would be leaving the club immediately, after both parties agreed to terminate the remainder of his contract. “The club expresses its thanks and appreciation to Neymar for what he has provided at Al-Hilal, and wish the player success in his career,” read a statement on social media from the club, thanking the 32-year-old forward for his time in the Middle East. And in return, Neymar was quick to underline his thanks to the club that paid €90 million to sign him in the summer of 2023. “I gave everything to play and I wish we enjoyed better times on the pitch together,” noted the Brazilian international. “To Saudi, thank you for giving me and my family a new home and new experiences. I now know the real Saudi and have friends for life.” 

As the player himself alluded to in his social media post, Neymar’s time at the Saudi club was well and truly dogged by one injury after another. As if joining the club with a muscle injury wasn’t a bad enough omen, the forward then tore a cruciate ligament just a few months into his spell at the club that ruled him out for 11 months, before further hamstring injuries ruled him out for the entirety of the 24/25 season. In total, Neymar made just seven appearances for Al-Hilal over the course of 18 months at the club. And when we factor in his initial transfer fee and the fact that the Saudi side have recouped nothing by allowing him to depart for free, it unquestionably makes Neymar the most expensive transfer in the history of the sport when we break it down to the costs involved in each appearance for the club. 

As we can see in the graph above, Neymar’s time at Al-Hilal worked out at a staggering €12.8 million per appearance for the Saudi Pro League side. When we exclude all transfers that have taken place after January 2024, that means that the Brazilian player cost his former club more money than any other player in the history of the sport. However, Neymar certainly isn’t alone in becoming something of a notorious figure in the transfer window. As we can see, he’s only marginally above Italian central defender Mattia Caldara, who joined AC Milan in 2018 for a staggering €37.7m only to make just three appearances for the club. When we then factor in the fact that he only left Milan last summer on a free transfer, it means he cost the Italian giants €12.6m per appearance. 

In third place on the list is none other than one of Neymar’s former teammates at Paris Saint-Germain in young striker Hugo Ekitiké. The former Reims’ star made the move to the French capital in 2023 for €28.5m, before eventually being sold to Eintracht Frankfurt for €16.5m. Although Ekitiké did make 33 appearances for PSG, all but one of them came before he joined the club on a permanent deal. As such, he ended up costing the Ligue 1 giants a staggering €12m per appearance. In fourth place is another striker in Anthony Modeste, who swapped FC Köln for Chinese club Tianjin Tianhai in 2018 for a remarkable sum of €29m. The chinese club was eventually dissolved in 2020, but Modeste departed two years prior on a free transfer. Which ultimately cost his employers no less than €9.67m per appearance. 

However, while each of these players left behind disgruntled club accountants, there’s no doubt that none of them can rival Neymar in terms of his worldwide appeal and the manner in which his move to Saudi will be seen as one of the biggest transfer flops in the history of the sport. Over the course of his career, the Brazilian forward has accumulated more transfer fees than any other player, with no less than €400m. And as we can see in the video above, not only do those fees amount to a total that is almost twice what Cristiano Ronaldo demanded in fees over the course of his career, but it also sits comfortably above second-placed Romelu Lukaku. Whether another player will take top spot from Neymar in the foreseeable future is anyone’s guess, but for now the Brazilian sits top of the list following a rather disastrous spell in the Middle East.