PSG has six Brazilians on its 24-player roster this season, though one overshadows the rest. Neymar da Silva Santos Jr. is now the most expensive footballer ever, following his $349 million contract and $263 million transfer from Barcelona, a move that rearranged the balance of power in European football -- and might have changed the sport irrevocably. His arrival is the most dramatic manifestation yet of a plan by PSG's Qatari ownership to transform a team with virtually no football history into one that matters, and eventually the one that matters most.
Neymar's deal came as a surprise to nearly everybody, including the Barcelona hierarchy. He'd been coveted by Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the Qatari businessman who runs PSG, for more than a year, but the effort gained momentum after Barcelona's comeback in March's Champions League round of 16 match between the clubs. Down 4-0 after the first leg, Barcelona scored an impossible six goals in the second to win on aggregate 6-5. Neymar scored two and set up a third, yet all anyone talked about was Leo Messi, who had also been rather brilliant despite scoring just a single goal. At that moment, people close to him say, Neymar understood that he wouldn't emerge from under the vast shadow cast by his diminutive teammate as long as he stayed in Barcelona.
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