Why injury to Neymar has sparked ticket reselling for clash against Mumbai City FC at DY Patil Stadium

In just five minutes, 22,000 people had pre-registered to witness Mumbai City FC take on Saudi Arabian giants Al Hilal SFC at the DY Patil Stadium for their Asian Champions League (ACL) match – a match which was then supposed to be headlined by Brazilian superstar Neymar. In 33 minutes after that pre-registration window opened, that number crossed 55,000, unheard of for a football match in Mumbai.

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Fast forward to Saturday, a couple of days before the match. Only around 30,000 tickets of the available 38,000-odd have been sold. Quite a few of those who have purchased those higher range (and even the base range) tickets are looking to sell them. Fans who booked tickets from different parts of the country are still contemplating whether making the trip is worth it.

And there’s only one reason for this change of heart — Neymar suffering an injury and being ruled out of the tie.

The 31-year-old had to be taken off on a stretcher during the first half of Brazil’s 2-0 loss against Uruguay in Montevideo last month with Brazil confirming on Thursday that he underwent a surgery on his ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus in his left knee.

The Saudi Pro League grabbed all the footballing headlines this summer with their high-profile signings, starting with five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo. While it was not overtly shocking to see the 38-year-old Portuguese, who had fallen out with Manchester United and was without a club, join Saudi club Al-Nassr FC, Neymar’s transfer really rocked the footballing world.

Neymar, who in September broke Pele’s record to become Brazil’s highest goalscorer, was lured away from PSG, where he hadn’t