Bartomeu admits overall cost of Neymar deal is over €100m

After all this time, can you tell us how much Neymar actually cost Barcelona?” Josep Maria Bartomeu was asked by a journalist. The president duly explained: “I think we’re mixing up concepts. I’ll explain. The cost of signing the player was 57 million, which is what was paid: 17.1 million to Santos and 40 million to the player’s father. Moreover, he reached the final of the Ballon d’Or: an extra two million. Those 59.1 million and the 5.5 million from the agreement with the public prosecutor’s office and the State Attorney's Office. That’s the cost of the deal.”

“Another thing”, he added, “is the overall cost of the operation. And this is an amount which is over 100 million euros (108.7 million, according to calculations,” he said.). But at the end the club amortized the signing”. Bartomeu was clear that the cases Neymar 1 and Neymar 2 have no bearing on the player’s contract renewal and he also stressed that he would do the same again. “Of course I would repeat the process. It’s as though its been a distaster for Barcelona on a global scale. Everything that was discussed became a fiscal issue. What has remained at the end is a fiscal interpretation,” he stressed.