Why Neymar’s transfer fee broke record – Mestre

Barcelona’s vice-president, Jordi Mestre, has said that forward, Neymar’s behaviour during his switch to Paris Saint-Germain is the reason for football’s inflated transfer fees.

BBC Sport reports that Mestre said the Brazil international played “rock the boat” with the Catalan club before his exit in August.

“We would have saved a lot of money and a lot of media noise,” said Mestre.

“What hurt me the most was the way it happened.”

“If he came to us and said, ‘I want to go,’ we would have reached an agreement. What you can’t do is rock the boat.”

“He told us nothing. If he had done, PSG would have been able to buy him for less money and it would have cost us less to sign players too.”

“It arrived at a point where we saw where things were going, so we told him we would not pay his contract renewal loyalty fee,” said Mestre.

Since Neymar’s departure, Barcelona have spent £142m on signing Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool, having brought in Ousmane Dembele from Borussia Dortmund for an initial £97m, which could rise to £136m.

PSG paid €222m for Neymar, making him the most expensive player in history.