The other day a journalist from Sheet He asked me in the newsroom, late at night, almost at the end of the day: “How much did Neymar earn for the time he played for Al Hilal?”
The question arose from a conversation that appeared after the Brazilian star’s most recent injury, on the 4th of this month, to a muscle in his right thigh, which would keep him out of matches for around four to six weeks.
The injury occurred in the second game in which he played after a year and four days of recovery from a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, when he was playing for the Brazilian team, in October 2023, against Uruguay.
I didn’t know how to respond to my professional colleague immediately.
I knew that Neymar, 32, who has been in Saudi Arabian football since August last year, when he was sold by Paris Saint-Germain for 90 million euros, has an exorbitant salary, but I didn’t remember how much.
I checked. Several sports websites report that the number 10 earns, in round terms, 100 million euros per year, which is approximately 8.34 million euros per month (R$50.8 million at the current exchange rate).
Continuing with the mathematics: Neymar completes 15 and a half months at Al Hilal this week, which means that he would have received a total of 129.3 million euros (R$ 787.5 million) in salary.
The striker revealed by Santos managed to play just seven games (three in “Sauditão”, four in the Asian Champions League) for the team from the city of Riyadh, for 428 minutes, according to data from the Soccerway website. Minutes lower than five complete games.
This allows a calculation that concludes that, per minute on the field, he earned 302 thousand euros (R$ 1.4 million). Here is the answer to the question at the beginning of this text.
With the gain for every 60 seconds played, Neymar could purchase a BMW M4 CS, a sports car that goes from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.4 seconds. Or a 141 m² apartment with three bedrooms, four bathrooms and parking space in Jardins, an upscale neighborhood in São Paulo.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning: his only goal for the team, scored on October 3rd last year, in the 3-0 victory over Nassaji Mazandaran, from Iran, cost Al Hilal almost R$790 million. Only in the amount of salary.
Far from expected and, despite recent rumors that Neymar would be arranging a return to Brazil (precisely to Santos), the player’s father (also Neymar) assures that he will stay in the Middle East at least until mid-2025, when your contract expires.
The reason: to play the first new FIFA Club World Cup – popularly called the Supermundial –, which will have 32 participants, Al Hilal being one of them.
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