Neymar: The astonishing numbers behind failed Al Hilal transfer

Brazil star's stint in the Saudi Pro League cost champions $35 million per appearance

When Al Hilal signed Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain in August 2023, it was hailed as the latest blockbuster capture amid a rapid expansion of the Saudi Pro League.

But 18 months later, and with his contract being torn up, what could have been a transformative deal for the club and the league has made history for all the wrong reasons.

In terms of return on investment, it must go down as the worst transfer in football history – certainly the costliest deal for any club when you consider the paltry output Neymar was able to muster on the pitch.

The Brazilian, who is expected to finalise a move to Santos in the coming days, arrived for a fee of $94 million and earned an annual salary of $104m.

Based on those figures, Neymar cost Al Hilal approximately $245m in fee and wages, excluding any bonuses. In 18 months with the Saudi champions, he managed just seven appearances and scored only one goal.

That amounts to a cost of $35m for every competitive fixture in which Neymar featured. The one goal he scored came against Iran's Nassaji in the AFC Champions League in October 2023. Neymar never scored a single goal in Saudi domestic football.

He did manage to assist his teammates on two occasions, meaning that every goal or assist he produced came at a cost of $81.67m.

In all, Neymar managed just 428 minutes of competitive action for the Saudi champions. That is an astonishing $572,429 for each minute he was on the pitch, or $9,450 for every second.

The 32-year-old did enjoy a solid win percentage as a Hilal player, with him going undefeated in his seven appearances – five wins and two draws – but each of those wins came in at a staggering $49m, and each of the 17 points he helped the team gather across all competitions cost $14.4m.

If you get even more granular with performance data, the numbers are arguably even more shocking.

According to FotMob, Neymar touched the ball 392 times as an Al Hilal player, meaning each touch cost around $625,000. Known for his creative passing, Neymar was able to find a teammate on 223 occasions, with each accurate pass priced at $1.1m.

The former Barcelona star let fly at goal on 15 occasions ($16.3m per shot), with seven of those hitting the target ($35m per shot on target).

Of course, the reason behind all of these shocking numbers is Neymar's near constant battle with serious injuries during his spell in Saudi Arabia. He arrived with a pre-existing problem from his time in Paris but was beginning to show glimpses of his old self when disaster struck.

Having just about returned to fitness, he jetted off to represent Brazil in World Cup qualifiers and suffered a devastating knee injury, rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus against Uruguay in October 2023.

Clubs and their supporters share a collective dread when players depart for international duty, and Hilal's worst fears were realised when the brittle Neymar was sidelined for a full year in a match played thousands of miles away from his new home in the kingdom.

Then, last November, any hopes of salvaging his Hilal career were ended by a serious hamstring tear, with the reigning Saudi champions now opting to cut their losses.

The recruitment of a then 31-year-old player – albeit a global superstar – with Neymar's injury record was always going to be a risky move.

The numbers spelt out above show just how catastrophic it has been, and it's a transfer that will go down as a cautionary tale.