Neymar was ‘turned down’ by a trio of Premier League clubs before ‘reluctantly’ agreeing a transfer to the Saudi Pro League.
The Brazilian is undergoing a medical as he prepares to finalise a €90 million move to Al-Hilal. The deal will see him earn €200m in salary over the next two years.
Paris Saint-Germain have been open to selling Neymar, who cost €222m to buy from Barcelona in 2017, in recent months.
That prompted Neymar’s camp to reach out to a host of major clubs in Europe as he wanted to keep playing in the Uefa Champions League. Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United were among those clubs contacted, according to the Independent.
Bayern Munich and Real Madrid were also approached about a potential transfer, but all five clubs rejected the opportunity to sign the 31-year-old. Barcelona were interested in re-signing their former player on loan, but would have needed to offload several players to afford the player.
Despite being one of the most talented players of his generation, Neymar’s attitude and injury problems were a major turn off to potential suitors. But Al-Hilal are willing to spend €290m in total on the attacker after missing out on Lionel Messi, who joined Inter Miami this summer.
Neymar is the latest star name to move to Saudi Arabia amid a flurry of transfer activity from the four PIF-owned clubs in the Gulf state. He will link up with Ruben Neves and Kalidou Koulibaly, who left Wolves and Chelsea respectively this summer, at the Blue Waves.
The club have also signed Sergej Milinkovic-Savic from Lazio and former Barcelona winger Malcom from Zenit St. Petersburg.
According to Transfermarkt, Saudi Pro League clubs have so far spent €511m in the transfer window to date. Players such as Riyad Mahrez, Allan Saint-Maximin, Fabinho, Roberto Firmino and Jordan Henderson have all left the Premier League this year to move to Saudi.
