Costly but Undesired Football Stars Coutinho and Neymar Searching for New Clubs

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The months of June and July, when the transition from one season to the next one takes place in Europe, are nearly as much awaited as the football (soccer) leagues themselves. For athletes, the transfer window period, when clubs can trade players, is an opportunity to secure a move to a larger club after years of wearing the same shirt.

According to a survey by the English newspaper The Guardian, clubs in the five most important European leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, and France) together have moved over £4.7 billion (roughly R$22.6 billion) in this window alone.

But the period in which the market is booming has been a kind of ordeal for three players who, in the recent past, have registered record transfer prices through their respective club relocations: Neymar, 27, Gareth Bale, 30, and Philippe Coutinho, 27.

Neymar, the Brazilian team star, who in 2017 cost Paris Saint-Germain €222 million (R$822 million at the time), in the most expensive negotiation in football history, has been collecting frustrations and negative incidents this year.

Injured, he watched from the stands as PSG were eliminated in the Round of sixteen of the last edition of the Champions League, the main target of the Parisians and the reason why the striker was signed. In the 2017/2018 season, he had already stayed out — due to injury — of the play-offs against Real Madrid, also in the Round of sixteen.

A new injury took him out of the Copa América, amid assault and rape charges — Justice closed the investigation into the case. Last weekend, at the French team’s debut, supporters at the Parc des Princes cursed the striker and urged him to leave the club.

In addition to the deception due to his performance, the player’s displeasing attitude, who took time off to come to Brazil and recently declared that the best memory in his career is, precisely, the game in which he eliminated PSG while playing for Barcelona.

The European press is speculating on Neymar’s possible return to the Catalan club, which became more difficult after Barcelona’s €120 million (R$505 million) investment in the Frenchman Antoine Griezmann, hired to form the attacking trio alongside Messi and Suarez.

According to Spanish newspapers, negotiations with Real Madrid seem more likely, even though the club has paid dearly for Hazard.

While defining the potential arrival of the Brazilian, Real Madrid are working to discard Welshman Gareth Bale. Hired in 2013 for €100 million, a record for that year’s summer window, the striker has experienced physical issues that have limited his performance in Spain.

Despite this, his time in Madrid is far from being a failure, with major performances in the four Champions League titles won by Real between 2014 and 2018.

The return of manager Zinedine Zidane to the team, however, is likely to force the Welshman out, as he has been left off the preseason friendlies list in the USA.

One of his future options would be to return to the Premier League, where he played successfully for Tottenham. But England’s transfer window closed on August 8th.

The English Market has also denied the return of a Brazilian who has left the country’s football scene and has yet to score outside of it.

Philippe Coutinho cost Barcelona €120 million; the club took the Liverpool attacking midfielder in the 2018 winter window (January) hoping that in Catalonia he could replicate his English football achievements.

Along with Bale and Neymar, Coutinho was the least successful on the field. He scored ten goals in 22 games and helped the team win the Spanish Cup and the Copa del Rey.

However, he found it difficult to adapt to the two roles in which he was tested: as a left-winger, where Neymar played when with the club, and as a midfielder, in the creative role Iniesta had previously played.

The transfer windows in Germany, France, and Spain end on September 2nd. In Italy, the market will close on September 23rd.