It’s been five years to the day since the football world was left stunned at the latest and greatest example of the game’s own reckless, extravagant indulgence.
Yet while many were left gawping at the news Paris Saint-Germain, with their oil-rich Qatari owners, had splurged a ludicrous world record fee (€220m/£198m) to sign Brazilian superstar Neymar, a small group of football’s next humanitarians in-waiting were still reeling from their own big launch being overshadowed.
“We picked this day, August 4th, middle of the week, nothing going on. A couple of days before I got a call and it was like ’s***, Neymar’s going to be announced in Paris on that day.’”
