Football has had a world record breaking summer. The Qatari owned Paris Saint Germain shattered the transfer record to bring Neymar to the French capital last week and Premier League clubs are spending ridiculous amounts of money on a daily basis ahead of the kick off on Friday.

The deal to take a 25 year old Brazilian with 226 games and 122 goals in his professional football career, together with 52 in 77 caps for his country, means that one man is now worth more than the Gross Domestic Product of the three smallest countries in the world (Tuvalu, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands) which shows just how crazy football has become.

A few weeks before, in Pakistan, another record was broken. A record which shows not just the madness of the sport – a game that has the power to enthral like no other – and indeed nothing else on the planet.

The “Ronaldinho And Friends” matches. Two games spread over one incredible weekend in Karachi and Lahore, were watched by the biggest crowds to ever assemble to watch a small sided football game in the world.

Over 20,000 spectators were sent into a frenzy by the array of world football legends, not just Ronaldinho and Giggs, but Robert Pires, David James, Luis Boa Morte, George Boateng and many more.

Both the Neymar transfer and the legends game – and the rest of our league network too –  are linked in a very real way. Different ends of the spectrum maybe, one is an up and coming player and the Pakistan friendlies were players who had been there, seen it and done it, some of whom had experienced what Neymar is about to, but all are bound by the love of football.

We have over 450 leagues worldwide, we are presently in six countries and will be expanding to many more around the world in the next 12 months and we are able to do this, not only because we are the best but because we give people the chance to be part of something truly worldwide.

Football is the biggest thing in the world. Which is why Neymar is worth £200m and tens of thousands of people turn out to watch a six a side football match.

So when you are at your league this week, just stop and think how football brings the world together in the way that nothing else can. Who knows, perhaps it will be the thing that unites countries in a time when we all know we could really use it.