Neymar to PSG transfer rumors are the ultimate fever dream for soccer fans

Neymar has signed for PSG! Again. As he did in 2016. Fortunately, they were able to sign him after Antonio Conte blocked his move to Chelsea — who were one of his suitors when he was at Santos — after the club reached an agreement with Barcelona to buy the Brazilian for €180 million. This, after he was sure to sign for Manchester United in 2015, when he was attracted by their history and the allure of the Premier League.

The reason for Neymar deciding to leave Barcelona this year is apparently because he feels unhappy at being overshadowed by Lionel Messi. Thus, he wants his own team. Which is an odd line of reasoning, considering that Neymar was admonished for his low ambitions in the past, and even a few months ago, for saying that he is happy to play under, with and learn from Messi:

”All I want to do is play with the best players in the world — and the best of all is Leo Messi.”

To be fair, Messi himself has signed or is always on the verge of signing for PSG, Manchester City or Manchester United whenever his contract comes close to running down. So maybe Neymar just wants to leave him before he gets left.

Rory Smith of the New York Times recently wrote a great article about how soccer transfer rumors are the original fake news:

“But it is during the long, frenzied days of the summer transfer window, when soccer itself becomes a sidebar to the business of player trading, that this tendency reaches its purest form. This is when fact and fiction are blurred, when clubs and managers and agents all offer clandestine briefings of their own versions of events, when truth itself becomes elusive.”

In the article, Smith tells the story of a transfer hoax orchestrated by Irish author, Declan Varley, who created a fake 16-year-old player by the name of “Masal Bugduv” in the summer of 2008. The author gave the fake player Wayne Rooney’s characteristics, made him a supporting player on a fake Moldovan team, and spread the lies through message boards while citing a fake Moldovan newspaper. He linked the player to Arsenal and soon after the hoax took off. It made its way into major publications and Bugduv was even placed as the 30th (out of 50) best young player in Europe on one site at the time.

“People will believe what they want to believe ... and there is a desire to be seen as though you are in the know, not to want to admit you aren’t on top of the game.”

Neymar might sign for PSG, but he probably won’t. He might have been close to signing for every big club in every summer window, in the same way that Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo think about leaving their respective clubs whenever they want a new contract, or every big name player is linked with every big club. The fact is, it’s almost impossible to know in soccer. The game is too global, there are too many forces at work in transfers, and everything is obscure enough that fantasy often looks like truth.

This type of environment — where nothing is certain, where there are no true gatekeepers or reliable sources, where money is plenty and there’s an incentive for players and agents to keep moving, where there is no hard cap on how much a team can spend — is the perfect foundation for lies. “It could happen” is just as real as “it will happen” in a world where everything is possible, so fake stories take off.

Transfer season then becomes a case of wish fulfillment. It doesn’t matter what’s true or not, what’s important is that the fans want it to happen. Neymar has never made an indication that he was unhappy playing with Messi, on the contrary, he seems less concerned about having his own team or winning individual awards as much as he does with playing and learning from his idol. He has said so numerous times. But even his words don’t matter.

Fans see his talent and what they want him to be, then create a world where he fulfills the career trajectory that they want for him. Neymar is good enough to lead a team on his own. They want Neymar to do so, as he did for Brazil in the Olympics. And in a world where the possibilities are endless, all you have to do is find a team who could conceivably be interested and you have a story. Of course PSG wants Neymar.

This is also perfect for the fear factor as well. There are Barcelona fans who believe Neymar is leaving, or want him sold, regardless of his talents or efforts, because he doesn’t have the quiet, “schoolboy” attitude of Messi and Iniesta. A mindset lionized by Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.

To the greater point, as Varley said, these stories spread fast because people have a desire to be in the know. It’s the pretension of being important. Of being part of the special few who knows more than the general public. It’s scoop culture without actual journalistic standards. It’s effective because even the most reputable sources want to be the first to the story, even if it’s just whispers, but it’s nothing more than performance art.

Even when the information comes from a legitimate source, it can’t be trusted. Agents and other people close to players often convey false information to sources in order to either get new contracts for players, just as clubs release release information to weaken the position of the player in negotiations. Everyone uses this murky world to their advantage.

Finding the truth in transfer rumors is exhausting. You have to challenge the notion of what you want against what is reasonable. And many times, by design, the two look the same.

Then, to be honest, it’s all just fun. It’s a thrill to imagine all the players that your team could get, to fill out team sheets on how your club will line up for the next season, and to chase story after story. In the case of the people spreading the news, it’s an exciting thing to be a person of importance, a beacon of knowledge and exclusivity.

Transfer season is a spectacle. It rewards base emotions and desires over logic. Neymar doesn’t have to sign for PSG, that’s beside the point. The main thing is that it’s possible that he could and that people want him to. It’s the fantasy that drives everything.