Dear Editor,

If the proposed deal to buy Brazilian soccer star Neymar goes through, Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (PSG) would have spent nearly US$300 million for just one player. This would be a record signing and the first time a soccer player would have been bought for over US$200 million.

The first question is how does one of the lesser clubs in Europe afford to fork out so much money? Well, the club is now owned by a Qatari businessman with money to burn and who has briefed his board of directors to go out and sign up the best players that money can buy.

Under the proposed contract the would-be first US$200-million soccer star would get a salary of $35 million a year in addition to prize money, bonuses and sponsorships.

Neymar is now worth US$128 million including the ownership of numerous mansions, a private jet, a yacht, and a fleet of classic cars. And he is only 25 years old. And we are still giving him more.

This is a man who spends US$2,000 a month on his hair, and in one visit to a shoe store he spends US$30,000 on sneakers.

The upshot of all this is that these megastars develop an oversized ego with a feeling that they are bigger than the sport and almost everything else.

In a recent training ground bust-up with a teammate rookie at Barcelona, Neymar reportedly stormed out of the session. Some reports say he asked: “Do you know who I am?”

In a recent tour of the US with his present club, Barcelona, the people could not get enough of Neymar with fans waiting around for hours just to get a glimpse of their idol.

Another celebrity soccer star, Cristiano Ronaldo, when he was told that the Spanish Government was going to prosecute him for tax fraud, threatened to walk away from Spain. ( The Mirror)

But this is nothing new. In the 1960s one of the Beatles claimed that they were more popular than Jesus Christ.

Money has now replaced love of the sport and loyalty to fans but would it be expecting too much to ask why some of this money could not be diverted through, say, heavy taxation, to feed, clothe and educate the millions of us who have nothing?

I know that this is wishful thinking but there is still the moral question: Why should so few have so much while so many have so little?

This is something to think about.

Victor A Dixon

Boynton Beach, Florida

victoradixon@yahoo.com