PSG's Spending on Transfers Compared to What the Club Was Valued at in 2011 Is Mind Blowing

Paris Saint-Germain completed a €222m world record deal for Neymar last week. That transfer was incredible enough by itself given its seismic nature, but is made even more remarkable when considering what PSG as a whole club was worth just six years earlier.

PSG are not a traditional European giant in the same way that Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United or Liverpool are.

They were only formed in 1970 and had won just two French titles in 39 years of top flight football before triumphing in 2013. Their only European trophy was and is still the Cup Winners' Cup in 1996, while a single semi-final appearance in 1995 is the furthest any PSG team has ever been in the European Cup/Champions League.

When Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) completed their takeover of the club in the summer of 2011, PSG had finished 4th, 13th, 6th, 16th, 15th, 9th and 9th in the preceding seven seasons.

It meant that despite being the only notable club in one of the biggest and most prominent cities in the world, as well as being from a strong footballing nation, the whole club was thought to be valued at just €100m when the takeover was completed.

QSI made money available immediately and that first season saw transfer expenditure explode as Javier Pastore arrived from Palermo as the surprise marquee buy at €39.8m.

Lucas Moura was another €40m buy the following season, while fellow Brazilian Thiago Silva's fee from AC Milan was estimated at €42m. Edinson Cavani became one of the most expensive players in the world at €64m in 2013, and a teenage Marquinhos cost €31m.

David Luiz, Angel Di Maria, Grzegorz Krychowiak, Julian Draxler have all made huge moves since. It means that having also now signed Neymar, PSG's spending on transfers in the six years since the QSI takeover has reached an eye watering €900m.

That means spending nine times more on new players in such a short period of time than the club was actually bought for. Neymar on his own, a single player, cost more than double the money QSI originally invested to buy PSG as a whole just six years previously.

It's a truly staggering level of investment.