Brazilian forward Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior announced Tuesday that he had moved to the Saudi Pro League team Al Hilal, which lured the star soccer player away from the French champions, Paris St-Germain.
The Al Hilal Arabic account on Twitter featured a video Tuesday in which the athlete, popularly known as Neymar Junior or, mononymously, as Neymar, says, “I am here in Saudi Arabia, I am Hilali.”
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Al-Hilal reported paid the French club $102 million for Neymar, who was under contract until 2025. Under the terms of his new contract, Neymar will reportedly earn at least $150 million a year, a dramatic increase over his $27 million French salary.
Saudi Arabia is on a soccer spending binge. In June, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund took ownership of the Pro League’s four largest clubs, including Al-Hilal, which have been aggressively pursuing the world’s leading soccer talent.
The government says it is investing massively in sports to diversify the country’s economy away from oil and to convince its sedentary citizens to engage in physical fitness.
The kingdom is also seeking to burnish its global image, which human rights abuses have tarnished.