Ligue 1

PARIS - Brazil forward Neymar has signed a new contract with Paris Saint-Germain that will keep him in the French capital until 2025, the Ligue 1 club said on Saturday.

The 29-year-old Neymar, who joined PSG in 2017 from Spanish club Barcelona for a record transfer fee of $270 million, has agreed a deal French media reported will earn him an annual salary of $36.50 million.

Neymar said he wanted to leave PSG in 2019 amid media reports he was keen on returning to Barcelona, but he stayed in Paris and helped PSG reach the Champions League final last season.

The average value of the world's 50 leading sports teams rose to $3.43 billion in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an annual list published by Forbes on Friday that was topped by the NFL's Dallas Cowboys.

Forbes said the average value of the world's 50 most valuable teams on the list was up 11 percent from last year's ranking.

It was a fiery weekend across French football as 10 red cards across an equal number of Ligue 1 matches punctuated both a riveting title race and the tense fight against relegation.

At the bottom end of the table, a 15th-minute red card for Angers helped Lorient stay four points clear of the drop zone, while in Bordeaux, Steven N'Zonzi's eighth-minute sending off for Rennes helped the hosts maintain a five-point cushion from the bottom three.

Wednesday promises to provide an enthralling clash as the high-powered offenses of Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain do battle in the Champions League semifinal first leg.

Both sides lead their respective domestic leagues in scoring this year, with PSG having scored 77 goals through 34 games and Pep Guardiola's City posting 69 in 33. While City waltzes towards its fifth league title since 2011-12 and third in four years, PSG finds itself in the midst of an actual title challenge in Ligue 1 for just the second time in nearly a decade. 

Due to Paris St German's dominance of French football over the years, Ligue 1 has become one of the least competitive competitions in Europe. Since the club's Qatari takeover in 2011, PSG has won seven of the last nine Ligue 1 titles — nearly all of them by 10 points or more.

This season though has brought a welcome change to the Ligue 1 landscape. PSG has played slightly below its standards domestically (its eight league losses, including five at home, are the most in a decade), while the competing sides have noticeably improved, making for a scintillating title race.

Somewhere in an alternate universe, Lionel Messi is the best player MLS has ever seen, Luis Suárez and Edinson Cavani are both pushing for their third MLS Cup and the United States is the premier destination for global footballing talent. 

In the meantime, we'll have to settle for a new signing who, while not quite as well-known, is arguably more intriguing than any player to ever put on an MLS kit.