World champions in spending money: with the record signing of gareth bale, real madrid has strengthened its leading position in the "league of million-dollar transfers. The three most expensive transfers in soccer history were all made by the "royals.
Before the welshman bale, whose transfer fee was put at 100 million euros by his former club tottenham hotspur, real president florentino perez had already brought in cristiano ronaldo for 96 million euros and zinedine zidane for 72 million euros.
However, the madrilenians deny that the signing of bale is a record transfer. Officially, the spanish record champion did not disclose the amount the club will pay tottenham for the 24-year-old, but behind the scenes, real officials made it clear that the amount was "only" 91 million euros.
The madrilenians have a good reason for this: they don’t want ronaldo to lose his reputation as the world’s most expensive player. The portuguese could see his prominent position in the squad endangered by it. And the torjager reacts very sensitively when he cannot be the number 1. He proved this only recently, when he stayed away from the UEFA gala for the selection of the best footballer in europe, because he probably knew that he would only have to be satisfied with third place.
Real stirred up the player market with the signing of bale shortly before the transfer deadline. The madrid press assumed that mesut ozil would be the one to suffer. The sports papers "marca" and "as" and the "BBC" in england reported that the german national player will probably move to FC arsenal. The lottery was estimated at 45 to 50 million euros. Ozil, on the other hand, as it hieb, preferred to stay in madrid. This had been emphasized by the german himself the previous week. On monday he arrived late at the meeting point of the national team in munich.
Since taking office in 2000, real president perez has brought eleven "galacticos" to madrid, including superstars such as luis figo and david beckham. For this, the club spent a total of more than 570 million euros. This sum contrasts sharply with the general economic situation in euro-crisis spain, which is characterized by an unemployment rate of over 26 percent and an ailing banking system that the country had to apply for 40 billion euros in aid from the eu to restructure.
For perez, however, the transfer payments are not expenditures, but investments. He recently issued the motto: "we must ensure that real remains the richest sports club in the world and generates the highest revenues so that we can afford the best players."A prime example of this strategy is ronaldo, who is said to have recouped his 96 million euros in winnings.
However, the bale commitment carries risks. The welshman is highly praised in the sports press, but he can hardly show any successes. He has only played in the champions league eleven times, has never been under contract to a top european club and has not yet won a major title.
The example of kaka shows that a million-euro transfer can sometimes turn into a disaster. Four years ago, real paid AC milan 65 million euros for the brazilian. The 2007 world champion failed to live up to expectations in madrid. Now real gave the brazilian back to milan for free.
"Perez burns 156 million euros in one evening: he gets bale for 91 million euros and lets the 65 million go down the chimney for kaka," writes columnist roberto palomar in "marca". "It’s a waste. In a private company, a man perez would have been fired long ago."