by Young Se Choi’18, Sports Editor

263 million US dollars. A quarter billion. That can buy you 1004 four-year degrees for students at MIT. One Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Six Greek Islands. Or even educate 1.15 million Indian primary school students for one year.

Over the past summer, there is no question that Neymar’s transfer from Spanish soccer club FC Barcelona to French club PSG for 263 million dollars is one of most extraordinary transfers the sports world has ever seen. Even taking into consideration the fact that Neymar is one of the top five soccer players in the world, this transfer has completely shattered the previous record broken by Paul Pogba’s transfer to Manchester United for 125 million dollars. I asked Brady Sheaffer ’18, captain of the soccer team, on his thoughts on Neymar’s move: “On a monetary perspective, it’s one of the craziest moves I’ve ever seen. I can’t even imagine 263 million dollars, but hopefully it pays off for the club.”

The Brazilian forward’s move has shaken up the way European clubs will look to buy players in the next transfer window. What will this move mean for transfer windows in general? How will it affect the transfer window in the future?

You don’t need an economist to figure out that soccer clubs have been spending massive amounts of money to buy players over the past two years. Since Paul Pogba’s record breaking transfer in the summer of 2016, two players, Ousmane Dembele and Neymar, have already broken that record. But it doesn’t stop there. This summer, more records were broken as Ederson, a Brazilian goalkeeper, became  the most expensive goalkeeper in the world under Manchester City andKyle Walker, an English fullback, became the most expensive defender over the summer as well. Deals of such proportions may beef up player prices in a market that has seen inflation over the past two summers. Brahm Wiesneck ’18, Manchester United fan and close follower of soccer, had his thoughts on the recent transfers: “I think clubs want to win more than ever which is why they’re pulling massive amounts of money out of their pockets just to buy valuable players. I thought Paul Pogba’s transfer record would never be broken. But after seeing Dembele and Neymar’s move, anything is possible.”

However, for prestigious clubs such as Barcelona, PSG, Manchester United, or Manchester City, spending huge amounts of cash will not be a problem as their global interest will recoup money from their massive transfer fees through jersey sales, merchandise, or ticket prices. In fact, even after making such expensive transfers, they profit; In Forbes’ list of most valuable sports teams in the world, Manchester United and Barcelona came in third and fourth respectively. These bigger, more valuable clubs may instead be keen on making their star players more unattainable by increasing their prices and therefore making it far more difficult for smaller, mid-table clubs to attract star players. I believe that soon enough, the gap between bigger, more successful clubs and clubs that are on the come up will increase; it will be far more difficult for smaller clubs to buy star players because of their small revenue in an inflated market. For this reason, some of have deemed this move to be a colossal mistake for the future of soccer. Now, it seems that the only way a smaller team can succeed is the way Leicester City did in the Premier league: a miracle.  

1. Jazeera, Al. “What you could buy for Neymar’s PSG transfer fee.” News | Al Jazeera. August 05, 2017. Accessed October 18, 2017. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/buy-neymar-psg-transfer-fee-170805035306837.html.