Ruud Gullit shrugs off Neymar’s €222m transfer fee, pointing out “Silvio Berlusconi was clear he wanted to spend a lot to win”.
The midfielder was one of the former Milan President’s first signings after his takeover, and he went on to win three Scudetti and two European Cups with the Rossoneri.
This summer saw Neymar leave Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain in a €222m deal, but Gullit doesn’t see a problem with the deal.
Ruud Gullit shrugs off Neymar’s €222m transfer fee, pointing out “Silvio Berlusconi was clear he wanted to spend a lot to win”.
The midfielder was one of the former Milan President’s first signings after his takeover, and he went on to win three Scudetti and two European Cups with the Rossoneri.
This summer saw Neymar leave Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain in a €222m deal, but Gullit doesn’t see a problem with the deal.
“It’s not like they spent less in my day,” the Dutchman told calciomercato.com.
“I cost around 10-12 billion [lire], [Marco] Van Basten was less because there were doubts about his physical condition so he didn’t reach two billion.
“But if it happened today, I’d have cost a lot of money. Berlusconi was very clear that he wanted to spend a lot to win everything in a short time, a lot of people teased him but in the end he was right.
“Whoever has the money in their hands dictates the rules, whoever has the player can decide whether to keep the player – who may be demotivated or unhappy – or take the money and usually the second option wins.
“It’s true that there’s a lot of money circulating today, €222m for Neymar is an avalanche of money but those are the rules.
“That was the figure for his buyout clause, if someone pays it they’ll take the player.
“In the end I think everyone’s happy: PSG get Neymar, Barcelona get paid what they could never have thought they’d be paid and obviously Neymar can live in silk for the rest of his life.”