PARIS - The french Football club Paris Saint-Germain have completed an incredible world-record move to sign Barcelona forward Neymar for EUR222million (£198m).

Neymar has signed a five-year deal in the French capital that will reportedly net him a salary of EUR30m annually.

Barca were adamant the Brazil international was not for sale but the blockbusting deal gathered pace over recent days and culminated with his release clause being met.

On Wednesday, Barcelona confirmed Neymar had asked to leave the club as he was excused from training by head coach Ernesto Valverde.

He said goodbye to his team-mates at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper training complex, with Lionel Messi then posting a fond farewell to his colleague on Instagram.

In a statement, Barcelona maintained PSG needed to pay Neymar's huge release clause in full but the saga took another twist when LaLiga refused to accept payment of the huge fee on Thursday.

But Barca later accepted the EUR222m after Neymar's lawyers arrived at their offices in person, with the club powerless to prevent the Ligue 1 giants pushing through a potentially era-defining transfer.

The deal marks an incredible response from PSG after they were knocked out of the Champions League in humiliating fashion by Barca and lost the French title to Monaco last season having won it for the previous four campaigns.

Neymar joins ex-Barcelona team-mate Dani Alves and compatriots Thiago Silva and Marquinhos at the Parc des Princes.

Alves, who moved to Paris in favour of an expected switch to Manchester City after leaving Juventus in June, is a close confidant to Neymar advised him to make a "brave" decision on his future.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger believes Neymar's proposed EUR222million transfer to Paris Saint-Germain proves that football is no longer a rational industry.

"For me, it's a consequence of the ownerships," he told a news conference when asked about Neymar. "That has changed completely the whole landscape of football in the last 15 years.

"Once a country owns a club, everything is possible, so it becomes very difficult to respect Financial Fair Play. That's why I always plead for football to live within its own resources.

"We're not in a period any more where you think 'if I invest that, I'll get that back'. We're beyond that now. The numbers today involves a lot of passion, pride, public interest, and you cannot rationalise that any more.

"It looks like the inflation is accelerating. We crossed the 100 million line for the first time last year and only one year later we cross the 200 million line. When you think Trevor Francis was the first guy at £1million [in English football in 1979], and that looked unreasonable, you realise how far we have gone and how big football has become. It's beyond calculation, beyond rationality."

Wenger thinks Barca will be forced into paying inflated fees for their own transfer targets because clubs will know they have the vast income from the Neymar deal at their disposal, provided that the move goes ahead.