(Bloomberg) -- Paris Saint Germain's Qatari owner is enlisting the club's hottest star to help promote the country's biggest bank.
After advertising products from razors and headphones to coffee and car batteries, Brazilian soccer star Neymar has now been appointed ‘global brand ambassador' for Qatar National Bank, the lender said in a statement.
The 25-year old forward, who has around 209 million social media followers, “shares the same values with QNB and its constant pursuit of excellence and achieving great results in every game,” his father Neymar Santos Sr said in the statement.
Neymar's transfer to Paris Saint Germain from Barcelona last year was the most expensive ever, with Qatar Sports Investments paying a record fee as it sought to build a global sports brand. Including salary and taxes over five years, Neymar will cost about 500 million euros ($569 million), that's more than what you'd normally pay for an entire team in France.
The soccer player's contract with QNB comes as his club is set to terminate a more than decade-long relationship with Emirates Airline. That deal has seen the Emirates name emblazoned on PSG player's jerseys since 2006, but is now coming to an end as the club seeks a more lucrative sponsorship and after the relationship between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates soured.
To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Martin in Dubai at mmartin128@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, Mohammed Aly Sergie, Claudia Maedler
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