Every jaw was dropped when the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) completed the signing of Rishabh Pant at the IPL 2025 mega auction, making him the costliest-ever player in franchise cricket. The amount was truly an exhorbitant one—Rs 27 crore. The deal wasn’t as surprising either, with Pant being one of the faces of Indian cricket and a viable captaincy option too. But had he past his prime and an injury-prone indiviudal, surely a franchise won’t have plugged in this enormous fee for him. But we are not talking about football here, where Neymar, who is a global superstar but well past his golden days, earned a colossal Rs 21 crore just for every minute he was on field for Al Hilal for the entire 2024!
Neymar earned 895 crore but played just 42 mins in 2024!
In the summer of 2023, Neymar left Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) after nearly six years that didn’t quite live up to expectations for many fans. His next stop? The Saudi Pro League, where some of football’s biggest names—like Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Sadio Mané—have also made headlines with eye-watering contracts.
Neymar’s deal with Al-Hilal is massive, earning him €101 million (8,95,21,35,000.00 or 895.2 crore) a year and placing him among the top three highest-paid players in the world. But here’s the kicker: he’s only played 42 minutes in 2024. That works out to an astonishing €2.4 million (Rs 21. 2 crore) per minute on the pitch.
Even more jaw-dropping? Neymar touched the ball 45 times during those two games. That’s €1,122,222 per touch. That is almost Rs 10 crore per touch! Let that sink in. It’s a mind-boggling figure that shows just how far the Saudi league is willing to go to shake up the football landscape—and Neymar’s making every second (and every touch) count.