Nasser Al-Khelaifi: The former tennis pro who has masterminded PSG's rise to the top of European football
Tennis, though, was important to the journey of this man writing plenty of European football's biggest cheques, however. It is how he formed a close friendship with Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who became the eighth Emir of Qatar in June 2013. The pair were teammates in the Qatar national team.
There was a time when Nasser Al-Khelaifi operated among big numbers on the tennis circuit. Paris-Saint Germain's president used to play the racket sport professionally but retired in 2002 having reached a career-high 995 in the world rankings.
The figures he now deals with in football are significantly more substantial. For the latest example, the Messi transfer from FC Barcelona.
It may surprise a lot of people but Khelaifi was actually a pro tennis player.
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Information on Al-Khelaifi's tennis career is scratchy, but the International Tennis Federation website records he won 12 and lost 39 of his singles matches.
His highest-level appearance saw him take one game off Thomas Muster, a former French Open champion and then world No 2, during a straight-sets defeat at the ATP event in St Poelten, Austria in May 1996.
Al-Khelaifi seemed a better doubles player, losing 6-3, 6-3 to Britain's Jeremy Bates and South African Gary Muller, a highly-rated duo at the time, in the round-of-16 at the 1993 Doha tournament.
He and partner Andrei Cherkasov, of Russia, took home $1,640 in prize money despite the defeat. Not exactly sensational, we can conclude.
Tennis, though, was important to the journey of this man writing plenty of European football's biggest cheques, however. It is how he formed a close friendship with Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who became the eighth Emir of Qatar in June 2013. The pair were teammates in the Qatar national team.
'I'm six years older than him and we first met when the crown prince was eight,' Al-Khelaifi has said. 'We met through tennis, we used to play together. I have a good relationship with him.'
A decade ago Sheikh Tamin founded Qatar Sports Investments, Al-Khelaifi became chairman, and in 2012 the investment company completed its takeover of PSG, launching the club back into the continent's consciousness through huge sums of money.
Javier Pastore arrived for £37m, Zlatan Ibrahimovic for £15.7m – with net wages of £778,000 per month – and Thiago Silva for £30m. Ezequiel Lavezzi came for £25m, Edinson Cavani for £55m and, last summer, David Luiz for £50m.
Who can forget the lavish recruitment of David Beckham?
Al-Khelaifi has been there through it all, cutting a figure of sophistication and diplomacy, raising PSG's profile and with it that of his homeland Qatar, the wealthiest nation per capita in the world, due to its natural gas and oil reserves.
Increasingly, those enormous revenues of cash are being invested into projects across the globe to increase Qatar's standing and lessen the dependency on income from energy.
The Qatar Investment Authority was formed in 2005 and since, through subsidiaries such as QSI and Qatar Holdings, the country's influence has spread – backed, it is estimated, by more than £100billion in assets.
Qatar has stakes in Barclays, Volkswagen and Sainsbury's. It has bought Harrods Group from Mohamed Al-Fayed, including the Knightsbridge store.
Qatar also has a media arm, growing in recognition, with Al-Khelaifi as chairman of beIN Media Group, the series of sports channels broadcasting a host of football action.
Then there is Qatar's relationship with Barcelona, which has untroubled UEFA despite the La Liga giants competing in the Champions League alongside PSG. Initially finding its way onto the famous shirt – previously untouched by commercialism – in 2010 through the Qatar Foundation, two years ago Qatar Airways moved in for £30m per season.
A billion fingers around a billion pounds in a billion pies, you might say.
