Paris Saint-Germain’s Brazilian forward Neymar (right) poses with Paris Saint Germain’s (PSG) Qatari President Nasser Al Khelaifi during his presentation to the fans at the Parc des Princes Stadium in Paris, on Saturday.
Paris: Brazil superstar Neymar received a hero’s welcome from the Paris Saint-Germain faithful on Saturday as he vowed to win ‘lots of trophies’ following his world record transfer.
The 25-year-old was presented to fans at the club’s Parc des Princes stadium ahead of a 2-0 victory over Amiens in their opening Ligue 1 match of the new campaign.
“Thank you! I’m very happy, I’m delighted to be here for this new challenge,” said Neymar as fireworks went off around him and fans chanted his name over and again.
“I want to win lots of trophies with you and I need your support to win these trophies,” added the former Barcelona and Santos star.
“Paris is magic!” he said in French before calling out the club’s motto: “Ici, c’est Paris!” -- Here, it’s Paris. Hopes the Brazil captain would make his debut for the club were dashed by red tape as his international transfer certificate wasn’t lodged in time with the French league, meaning he had to watch his new team-mates from the stands.
He was hardly missed as PSG strolled to an easy victory with goals from South American pair Edinson Cavani and Javier Pastore, the latter whose place in the team could come under threat by Neymar.
PSG had already started to recuperate part of Neymar’s mammoth transfer fee on Friday when he was officially unveiled as the most expensive player in history at 222m euros ($264m).
The club sold more than 10,000 shirts with his name and No.10 on the back on Friday, bringing in around 1m euros.
They also expected to sell another 15,000 shirts on Saturday while a 45,000 sell-out crowd watched the opening game. And money was the subject of most of the questions fired at the Brazilian when he was unveiled to the media on Friday after arriving in the French capital on a private jet to sign a five-year contract with the Qatari-owned club.
“I want something bigger, a greater challenge,” said Neymar, who is poised to earn around 30m euros a year.
Neymar admitted that leaving Barcelona, where he formed part of a lethal attacking trio with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, was not a decision he took lightly.
“It was one of my most difficult decisions. In Barcelona I had adapted well to the city and the team,” he said.
“It was a tense time, thinking about what I should do in my life.”
Neymar will become the second highest-paid player in the world -- behind Carlos Tevez and his 38m euros a year at Shanghai Shenhua but ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo’s 23.6m euros annual salary at Real Madrid.
The transfer fee shattered the previous world record of 105 million euros set by Manchester United in signing France midfielder Paul Pogba last year from Juventus.
It is an eye-watering sum, but one that PSG President Nasser Al Khelaifi insisted will eventually look like a bargain.
“There are not two Neymars in the world. I would love for us to meet in two years and see what his value will be compared to today. At least double,” said Al Khelaifi.
“I don’t think it’s expensive, I’m convinced we are going to earn more money with him. It’s a project of two brands: we’re associating the Neymar brand and the PSG brand.”
