After Ronaldo performed a much publicised yet unsurprising transfer to Juventus, the rumour mill cranked up to deafening levels. Which club had a superstar that Real Madrid could perform their obligatory post-World Cup habit of throwing wheelbarrows of cash towards?
Names like Eden Hazard were bandied about, James Rodriguez being recalled from exile loan at Bayern Munich was mentioned briefly, but soon all eyes turned towards the logical conclusion currently stationed at the Parc des Princes.
Over in the French capital PSG possessed the most unique of situations, a club with two players who could both be considered the natural heir apparent to Ronaldo. After last summer, when the Parisian club looked at the then €105m record transfer fee laughed haughtily and proceeded to pay the €220m release clause that Barcelona had thought insurmountable for Neymar.
Having spent more on a single attacker than the rest of the league combined had spent, a league where only eight teams had a net transfer spend; they then proceeded to take Bayern Munich’s strategy of stealing your opponent’s best player and loaned Kylian Mbappé for a season before a mandatory €180m fee the following season.
Having broken the pre-existing transfer record twice (sort of) in one window, it was a clear statement of intent from PSG. However, other clubs have made statements of intent before but when Real Madrid want a player, they usually get them.
Given that Neymar was reportedly unsettled in Paris made it more likely, or so it seemed, for him to make the move to the Spanish capital. Then came the World Cup, and Kylian Mbappé burst into the spotlight, in a moment of amazing symbolic resonance he was the man of the match on the same night that Ronaldo and Messi were knocked out of the tournament.
Many then connected the dots themselves, one of these two would be the latest Galactico. That line of thinking however, is deeply flawed. Neither of the two players will make the move to the Iberian Peninsula and definitely not this summer.
Kylian Mbappe with France (Photo by Michael Regan – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Where most people come unstuck trying to grasp this situation is that because PSG is a football club, they look at this from a purely footballing perspective.
Neymar is a superstar and Madrid is an absurdly rich club that is the metaphorical city to which all footballing roads lead, a transfer so that he can take the baton from Ronaldo would make sense.
However, that is where this becomes about so much more than football. PSG is owned by Qatar Sports Investment (QSI), a sporting investment group that is owned, essentially, by the Qatari royal family.
This complicates matters in multiple ways that all end in the same conclusion, Mbappé and Neymar are only leaving if and when the club are happy for them to go.
The first reason, as it usually is in football these days, is all about money. PSG have the backing of an oil-rich sheikhdom, this means that the usual business-related aspects of a football club don’t apply.
Unlike other clubs that must bend unto the financial constraints of their business, with PSG there is absolutely no financial imperative to sell their prized assets. Yes, they still must comply (or at least look as though they are) with FFP constraints, but these rules are fairly malleable, and the CAS’ ruling this summer with AC Milan shows that they are also easily circumvented.
The virtually bottomless pit of a bank account that runs PSG means that they are immovable in the face of huge transfer sums where other clubs wouldn’t be. People often point to the fact PSG were able to purchase Neymar in the first place, but Barcelona’s attempts to keep the Brazilian were thwarted by the legally mandatory minimum fee release clause in Spain, something that is absent from his contract in the French capital.
They can afford to turn up their nose at record breaking figures in ways that other clubs couldn’t.
PSG’s Neymar controls the ball (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)
When QSI took over at PSG in June 2011 it was clear that life in French, and then inevitably European, football would never be the same again. After a disappointing initial season, the capital club very quickly established total hegemony of the French domestic football world.
The club were then able to truly turn their attentions towards the end goal – Europe. It is clear from what club officials have said, and their actions, that they want PSG to be the biggest club in the world, one that settles for nothing less than total success.
This attitude was taken to the absolute extreme at the end of the 2015-2016 season when, despite winning the domestic quadruple including finishing 31 points above second placed Lyon, manager Laurent Blanc was sacked for not progressing to the expectations of the chairman in the Champions League.
For a club that will go to such extreme lengths to become the pinnacle of football, selling either of their crown jewels would be an admission that PSG are a selling club instead of a destination club. It would be a slap in their face after the controversy when they obliterated the previous transfer record by paying out Neymar’s release clause.
The image PSG have of themselves, and the image that they want to project onto the footballing landscape, one of power and total dominance is antithetical to selling their best players. This is ultimately why they will not sell either of their two attackers, however the desire to maintain this image of the football club also goes beyond footballing reasons, into the realms of global politics.
At the end of the day, Paris Saint-Germain as a club, similarly to Manchester City, are simply vehicles for propaganda and soft power for Middle Eastern monarchies.
Many years ago, the Emir of Qatar looked on as Iraq felt able to walk into Kuwait, initially unopposed, he vowed that he would turn Qatar into a state powerful enough to prevent that fate befalling it.
Knowing that Qatar was too small to be a military power, and sizeable natural resources making it wealthy, but not to the extent of China or America, there was only going to be one way to achieve these aims.
The result was huge investment in projects to gain end exert soft power, the current most notable of which are the TV network Al Jazeera, and of course Paris Saint-Germain.
The French football club gives legitimacy to the Qatari government that could otherwise be unattainable, but also gives their representatives the opportunity to have conversations with people they otherwise would be unable to.
The key to this club being used most effectively in this way is to ensure that they are as successful as possible, so as to have the most power to exert.
Ultimately the intersection of pride, image, and soft power mean that PSG will absolutely want to keep hold of both their superstars and will have the means to do so. They might leave eventually, but if they do it will be at a time that the board and owners choose, and not before so.
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