Neymar to Paris St-Germain: £200m for a footballer - how do you feel?

Neymar joined Barcelona from Santos in 2013

From the tiki-taka playground that is Barcelona to the cash-rich clubhouse of Paris St-Germain, Brazil forward Neymar has swapped a European football giant for one hoping to scale such heights - at world record cost.

The free-spending French club paid a record breaking 222m euro (£200m) fee to sign the Brazilian.

That figure was the 25-year-old's release clause.

But in a summer that's already got tongues wagging over eye-watering transfer deals, how is the football world reacting to the most staggering of the lot?

• Analysis - what now for Barcelona? What was the moment Neymar decided to leave?

• How can PSG afford to pay so much for Neymar?

In a BBC Sport poll, 61% of voters think that football has lost the plot after this transfer.

What you've said...

Neymar arrived for training at Barcelona on Wednesday, and told his team-mates he wanted to leave

These were your comments reacting to the Neymar story, the day before the move was completed. The £198m was the sterling conversion at the time.

First, the good...

BlueIsTheColour: Neymar is a snip at £198m, Manchester United paid £89m for Paul Pogba who is worse than Carlton Palmer.

The bad...

Two Chevrons Apart: Nice to see Financial Fair Play rules working. And to think we thought clubs wouldn't take it seriously... Huh, how silly do we look now?

Sup: What a circus. What a joke. What a disgusting amount of money. Probably spent with money they don't even have, but on the premise at some point in time it'll be paid back. PSG are as plastic as Real.

AJH: And we all laughed at the Premier League's transfers! This is just insane. Neymar is good, but I wouldn't even consider buying Messi or Ronaldo for that kind of money, let alone Neymar.

I presume even the toothless FFP brigade will be watching this like a hawk - if PSG don't sell at least 5/6 players to finance this then surely, surely they'll be paying a price of some sort?!

The ugly...

Freedom2014: RIP football, you have been on life support for years but today your heart finally gave in.

The causes were many but Spain/England/France/Germany/Italy take the most blame in carving up the Champions League for themselves and turning the once great European Cup in a boring predictable procession.

The fact that clubs like Ajax, Benfica, Anderlecht are now also rans says it all

Unification: Just an offensive sum of money.

Just one request from me for the supporters of PL clubs - you contribute to this madness. Just once this season, seek out your local club (preferably non-league) and support them on Non-League Day or for a fixture they're not likely to get many in through the gate for.

You will appreciate it. It's real unlike the world that Neymar and co live in.

Will: Sickening. The game has sold its soul to the devil.

£200million for a player, £500,000pw salary. How can that ever be justified from a financial perspective, let alone a moral one.

It's totally unsustainable and wrong especially while fans are held to ransom by pay TV!

Just imagine what that coin could do for grass roots or for helping disadvantaged fans get a ticket.

Your Neymar maths

As James from Oxford points out, at approximately 68kg in mass, and costing 222m euros, for Neymar to be "worth his weight in....", he would have to be made of plutonium, which costs $4,000 a gram.

Or, if you're talking chocolate, that's 14,256 tonnes of Freddo bars...

One Neymar or four Kyle Walkers?

Kyle Walker joined Manchester City from Tottenham for £45m plus add-ons

Neymar moved to Barcelona from Brazilian club Santos in 2013 for £48.6m, and signed a new five-year deal with the 24-time Spanish champions in 2016.

The Brazilian has scored 105 goals for Barcelona, helping them to two league titles, three Copas del Rey and a Champions League crown.

But his transfer to PSG smashed all previous world record fees out of the water, topping Paul Pogba's move from Juventus to Manchester United last summer by more than £100m.

In fact, it is the first time the transfer record has more than doubled - though Johan Cruyff (Ajax to Barcelona for £922,000 in 1973) and Diego Maradona (Boca Juniors to Barcelona for £3m in 1982) came close.

This is also the first time a French club have broken the world transfer record and the first time a French side has been involved in a world-record deal since Marseille sold forward Jean-Pierre Papin to AC Milan for £10m in 1992.

Neymar's move to the French capital will alter the face of the European transfer market, in which English clubs have far outspent their continental rivals.

About £910m has been spent by English clubs in the summer transfer window so far and, according to accountancy firm Deloitte, a new Premier League spending record will be set by 31 August.

That is considerably more than the amount spent in Europe's other four top leagues - Italian Serie A (£530m), German Bundesliga (£390m), Spanish La Liga (£280m) and French Ligue 1 (£260m) - before Neymar's transfer was completed.

France's top flight is now catapulted up to third in the spending ranks behind Serie A at £460m - although that's just a little more than half the English clubs' spending this summer.

Deals such as striker Romelu Lukaku's initial £75m move from Everton to Manchester United and Manchester City's willingness to spend big on defenders such as Benjamin Mendy (£52m) and Kyle Walker (£45m) have transformed the market - although you can get four-and-a-bit Walkers for a Neymar these days.

'Biggest deal in football history'

So what do the pundits say?

Brazilian journalist Fernando Duarte: "This is simply the biggest ever deal in football history.

"We're talking about a player who has the potential to be one of the best in the world. He has the marketing potential, he's a natural, unlike Lionel Messi for example who always looks awkward on camera.

"This is very important for any football club, especially a club like Paris St-Germain, who need a lot of promotion for Qatar. Why should Brad Pitt get $20m for a movie and a football player, who is not going to be playing in his 40s like many sporting stars, shouldn't?

"One year before the World Cup, he's going to a club where everything will be resting on his shoulders. If PSG win the Champions League, it will be Neymar's plaudits. If PSG fail, it will be Neymar's fault."

• Listen to Fernando Duarte on BBC Minute here

Spanish football writer Andy West: "From Barcelona's point of view, this summer was supposed to be about three things: extending Messi's contract (finally achieved last month), strengthening the midfield (ironically, PSG's Marco Verratti was the chief target), and easing in new manager Ernesto Valverde.

"The prospect of Neymar leaving was never considered as a real possibility, and even when the initial reports of PSG's interest first surfaced they were dismissed as the usual silly season inconsequential rumours.

"With the player himself remaining silent, it took a long time for anyone in Barcelona to actually believe that Neymar might go."

• Read Andy West's analysis of the Neymar deal here

BBC Radio 5 live sports news correspondent Richard Conway: "Having secured the World Cup in 2022, Doha sees PSG as one of the ways through which the state can achieve its ambitions.

"Uefa's Financial Fair Play regulations have certainly tempered PSG's elaborate spending in recent seasons, and Neymar's arrival would represent a serious challenge to the club in this respect - but there's confidence within PSG's boardroom that it will not be a significant issue.

"Ultimately this deal will not be judged in the governmental salons of Doha nor on a spreadsheet. Instead, success must be delivered through PSG capturing arguably the club game's greatest trophy, the Champions League."

What will Barcelona be missing?

Neymar is one third of Barcelona's 'MSN' strikeforce, which also includes Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.

In the past three seasons, they have scored 250 goals between them in 299 appearances.

But they do more than just score...