What about Ibrapay?

Recently it was announced that the Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic will contnue his sporting career in France, in Paris St. Germain. And his new club, owned by a superwealthy Arabic businessman, is determined to help mr. Ibrahimovic 'survive' the new ordeal. Annual pay? Twelve million Euro. And for what?

For a little more than 97 million Norwegian kroner (in a single day he'll be making as much as a fully trained Swedish nurse brings home in a year), mr. Ibrahimovic, or Ibra, as he is also fondly nicknamed, will hopefully - for the PSG fans - bring the Paris club a lot a domestic and international glory. You see, this Arabic businessman is probably as ambitious as his new star striker appears to be: winning is all that matters. It will look mighty good, moneywise, if the 30-year old footballer can produce enough goals for titles to be won. And it will look mighty good, too, to the average PSG fan, too. For a few moments the supporters can count on spurts of uninhibited, ecstatic joy, all the while ignoring petty problems like unemployment, factories shutting down and so on.

So, mr. Ibrahimovic may yet fulfill his role as Chief Entertainer in the French economic and political hub. But it will be costly. Twelve million Euro is ridiculously much in terms of pay. But who am I to protest? I didn't invent these silly mechanisms that buyer and seller all appeal to when the deal is about to be struck: it's all about market value, son.

Never mind the fact that the Swedish nurses most likely will save a lot more lives than Ibra.