Football is all about passion. Or maybe it was all about passion, until the millions entered the game. One thing is for sure, if you don’t have love for the game, you simply can’t play it. No matter if you’re talented, if you don’t enjoy every minute of it, you’re not gonna get far.
But what about the loyalty to the club?
Can money really make the difference? Well, we have examples of both yes and no. Let’s take Lewandowski and Mario Gotze as examples.
They both went from Dortmund to their bigger rival Bayern. Their goal was to win more titles, but they did received a big salary check as well.
And we also have Ezequiel Lavezzi.
He decided to move to China because they are paying him $442,000 a week. That’s a lot of money for a 31 year old player. He could have easily continued playing in Europe for 3 or 4 more years, but that wasn’t going to get him almost half a million per week.
The China contract put Lavezzi on the list of top paid football players in the world. He’s currently on number 7, above Neymar, Aguero and Yaya Toure.
The same goes for Paul Pogba
Pogba’s salary at Man Utd is above $300,000 per week. He wasn’t making that much money in Juventus, and other players were willing to sign the Frenchman as well.
Besides the privilege of playing under Jose Mourinho, there’s not much that Man Utd can offer. They’re not playing in the Champions League, and they’re currently working on building a team for the future.
This could take few years, which means a few years without a title. If he decided to join R.Madrid or Barcelona for a lower wage, his would have a better chance of winning the Champions League title.
But let’s get back to the Neymar story…
Speculations are a normal thing in every transfer period. Some are true, and some are just used for attention. Chelsea or some Russian team is always on a verge of signing Messi, of course according to few “trusted” sources.
But that never happens. Messi isn’t going anywhere. At least not until he no longer has the ability to perform on a world class level.
This summer was a bit different.
Messi wasn’t the main focus of speculation. It was all about Neymar, and how he isn’t satisfied with a secondary role at Barcelona.
According to few newspapers, he wanted to compete for the golden ball award and he wanted to sign with a team where he could be leader. But again, that never happened.
However, what his agent claimed wasn’t just a speculation.
According to Neymar’s agent, Barcelona turned down an offer of 170 million dollars for Neymar this summer. The team who sent the offer was PSG, and they were wiling to offer Neymar a salary of $700,000+ per week!
“He was very close to PSG. He would have earned â¬40m [£33.8] a year, free [after tax],” Ribeiro told ESPN Brasil.
But Neymar’s decision proved every Barca fan that he’s here to make history:
“Neymar was also close to a move to Manchester United. But he renewed his contract for less money with Barcelona, because he wanted to stay in Barcelona.” – Neymar’s agent.
