Thursday 11 June 2009

World record transfer fee for Cristiano Ronaldo

English champions Manchester United have officially announced that they have accepted Real Madrid's record 94 million euro bid for Manchester United attacker Critiano Ronaldo (24).

The official announcement on Manchester United's website goes under the title 'Record Ronaldo bid accepted' and reads as follows:

"Manchester United have received a world-record, unconditional offer of £80million for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. At Cristiano's request - who has again expressed his desire to leave - and after discussion with the player's representatives, United have agreed to give Real Madrid permission to talk to the player. Matters are expected to be concluded by 30 June. The club will not comment until further notice."

After the signing of AC Milan midfielder Kaká (27) for a presumed transfer fee of 68,5 million euro earlier this week, this is Real Madrid's second high-profile signing of the summer.

pep's opinion:
where are they getting the money with a debt of 500 million euro before this summer and a global crisis? we won't ask. it's sure good for the liga (so also for barcelona's revenues) having the last two fifa world player's of the year playing in spain. i don't think ronaldo and kaka really solve any of the problems madrid has faced last season, but i'm sure it's good for the moral of the fans.

98 comments:

Aussie Barca Fan said...

The transfer market will never be the same again.

kamikaze kontiki said...

Think he found it comfy in Puyol's back pocket. Want more of the same. Besides his gay antics will be looked on more kindly in the Mediterranian than in Britain.

LeónDragón said...

asked myself many times too where the money comes from. many times in the past. but i guess the reason is that madrid is the capital city and gets supported by the who know who. absurd to think that perez pay from his own money. but think and believe...money can't buy you love

yuti said...

Will be interesting to see what he can do in Spain. Guess the pressure now totally shifts to Madrid for next season. You can't afford to pay over 160 million on two transfers and not win trophies...

skanjos said...

pep you cant say that ronaldo and kaka cant solve the problems madrid had last season cause one of their problem was ball possetion,these two players can hold the ball ,score and are brilliant assets to real madrid .last year madrid had to play with higuan infront ,now with ronaldo and kaka it will be different

Anonymous said...

ah what the hell.
now united will use the money they gained from ronaldo to buy Ribbery.
and i was really hoping to see him in Barca next seasson...

MiDO From Lebanon said...

~~ PLEASE READ MY OPINION ~~

oh shit ! now we can never get ribery or ibra for less than 150 M :@
and i hope this ego maniak brings nothing to real madrid...
its clear that perez is bringing los galacticos back, and back then they couldnt do anything ( ronaldo zidane figo beckham) they won 2 or 3 titles in like 5 years, barca won 3 titles in one witouht using any galacticos just using la masia .
Visca el barca !

CosmicKite said...

This is going to bruise a few ego's in the Real dressing room. I suspect there will be some in-house quarrels next season.

kamikaze kontiki said...

RM can buy all the players they want. They will never have a team and a system of play as Barça do. I hope nothing rash is done in an effort to match them for star presence. I would like to see us with more or less the same team and some quality added to the bench and then we can laugh in the face of Madrid and their astronomical debt, at the end of the season.

Madrid are the Man City of La Liga. They are a joke and will be an even bigger one at the end of the season.

vic said...

Ill bet another 96 million euros that hell flop...the next beckham guys...in most ways hell help us by sturing trouble at madrid i bet you..hes just wasted his career

Ramzi said...

where are they getting the money with a debt of 500 million euro before this summer and a global crisis?

Perez will sell another RM property for 5 times its nominal price to the Madrid Mafioso. It won't be the first time;)

One of the two guys (Kaka, ronaldo) was more than enough. Both are too much.

Its good that they bought Ronaldo for that amount of money, or else they would have spent it on Di rossi, Mexes, Maicon, Mascherano and co.

Then, it would be understandable to feel worried. Till the moment, no worries at all. Though there is still lot of time.

Note: We didnt say our word yet, Barcelona are still keeping their cards close to the chest;)

Helge said...

"Madrid are the Man City of La Liga. They are a joke and will be an even bigger one at the end of the season."

I hope you're right. I think it's quite inconsequent from Perez to buy players like CR7 and Kaka, but introducing Pellegrini as the new coach. That's actually the biggest surprise for me.

Real Madrid will certainly be a lot stronger next season, but they will never be as strong as we were this season. Important for us will be to keep the momentum of this season, then we'll be able to shock Perez as if it was his worst nightmare.
But it's also possible that we'll play a rather "weak" season, which could be devastating regarding the new RM.
Nevertheless, I'm quite confident for the next season. It will be a hell of a season with Kaka, CR7 and Messi (plus maybe Ribery) in one league all together. Will people then still claim EPL is the best?

I bet Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal are quite happy, they might sense a chance of beating ManUtd now^^

This will have a HUGE impact on the whole transfermarket. RM still has >100Mio € to spend, not to forget ManUtd and Chelsea. In the end I feel the Bundesliga and Serie A will be the big losers of this summer's transfer period. There will be a lot of crazy rumours, and quite some of them will turn out to be the truth.

Anonymous said...

Do they really have over 100 mio euros the spend even after these 2 trnafers ?, where the hell do they get this kind of money anyway, does it grow on their back or something ?? I really hope now that we can get ribery now, and a good backup for abidal and alves. an btw i hate ronaldo now even more than i did before. i hope he and kaka will flop in spain, then i will be the most happiest man alive :-p

Anonymous said...

*to spend after these 2 tranfers*

Anonymous said...

They still have huge amounts to spend even after Ronaldo and Kaka. They will probably buy a striker and a few defensive players, Maicon has been strongly linked with them.

sashi said...

a different opinion -
Ronaldo's move away from Man U will surely see the resurrection of Rooney. he had been pleading to Cappello not to play him in the wing as Fergi does. he started down the middle and he scored lots of goals past week for England. now the bigger threat from Man U will be at his best. i rate Rooney far more than Torres. Torres has only the height more than Rooney which he compensates in many other ways.

James said...

@Anonymous

They probably still have money to spend if they sell a bunch of deadweight. Players like Van der Vaart, Snejider, Gago, Robben will fetch a lot of money still.

As for where they get this kind of money in the first place. Perez will try his best to perpetuate the lie that these transfers pay for themselves through commercial residuals. But the truth is he's just hiding the fact that the money is likely dirty. Either via questionable real estate deals where they sell a cheap piece of land for much more than it's worth to the city of Madrid (in which case the tax payers are paying for it) or to other illegal enterprises like Ramzi suggested. For the most part he's able to convince people that he gets it all back through shirt-sales so people don't look too carefully.

Anonymous said...

Am I the only one happy with this move? This should shut up the over-zealous EPL supporters claiming year after year that their league is by far the best in the world.

In regards to the money situation I believe Perez and co and have already worked out the ROI numbers for both transfers. Of course time will only tell how well their forecasts work out to be as Pep said we are still spiraling down a economic downturn.

Whatever the case our good-natured rivalry will provide for an exciting season of football!

James said...

I'm happy that they're now playing in Spain. It'll add a lot of prestige and excitement to La Liga. It'll be a lot of fun to watch too. I'm not happy about the distortion of the market though. It'll make our task in the transfer market that much tougher.

Overzealous supporters will always hype up whoever is in their league. Although, now that Ronaldo's not in the EPL they won't be afraid to say that Messi is better.

Anonymous said...

Madrid buys Ronaldo for the left wing, while Benayoun is linked to Barcelona as a solution. What a nightmare transfer season.

Sandvik said...

Im in a desperate need of a Barca signing rigth now.
It could even be a player to Barca Athletic.
Barca do your job and sign a player.

I believe that all the money that madrid has used, will make it difficult for Barca's negotiations :S

Xavi once said that Ronaldo wont be as good in Spain as in England, because he wont be getting that much space.
Let that happen

blaugrana1 said...

hmmm, seems like being the first club to win the treble in spain counts for nothing (money wise),,mayb we got the trophies and donated the money to madrid!!!!!!!!!...LAPORTA!!!!!
Barca fans demand RIBERY !!!!!!!!!!!!!

CampNou said...

Let us see. I wouldn't mind Ronaldo in Barcelona, as his long shots, free kicks and dribbling down the left flank would be something we could have needed. He is even very bood in the air and made us really dangerous on corners. He could have been a real pain for the busparking teams, but now he is in Madrid, which seems to get all the best young players in the world, even if they have been crap in europe for more than half a decade.

I don't understand how they manage to pull these transfers off, while we, the best team in the world, are looking at Bruno Alves for 25m euros and Luca Toni.

Anonymous said...

barca get RIBERY PLSSSSSS b4 real Madrid or Man U!!!


Mark,
Hu

Stigsby said...

Hey Pep,
the way these transfers are funded are through future revenue raised by shirtsales in foreign markets. It is expected that Kaka shirt-sales alone will raise 70€ mill the first year. The money are simply loaned, with the investors having insurance simply in the big name and reputation of the players.

Furthermore you could expect that buying both players would just mean that the fans would pick between a Kaka or a Cristiano shirt and not buy, meaning that each transfer would just steal revenue from eachother. However I believe that the Cristiano purchase will mostly bring in revenue fromt he Asian markets, while Kaka is a massive marketing machine in the Brazilian market.

This is the way the Beckham transfer was funded back in the days, even though we're talking about alot more money this time, they are funded from different markets now.

That is my theory at least. Invest big, earn big. They will only have to work with a temporary deficit, if their plan succeed that is. There is of course a bigger risk connected to it, which is reflected in the players they get.

SimonP said...

Maybe he will score against a spanish side for the first time in his career now.

Oh well Barca don't really need to sign so much. I would like to see a rightback, leftback, midfielder and winger/striker.

The guy from Almeria, Filipe, Mascherano/Felipe Melo and Ribery/Dzeko/Ibra would do.

barca4life said...

La Liga is now the best league in the world. Real Madrid just castrated the BPL's biggest marketing play. LOL

Stigsby said...

and not buy both*

"they are funded from different markets now." meaning they are spread out over two markets instead of just one.*

groga said...

If that would be true, Stigsby, why doesn't any other club does that? It seems too simple to be true.

Anonymous said...

Why can't other clubs splash out like Real Madrid does, then, Stigsby, if it is so simple to just earn back all the money by shirt sales? Our transfer budget this year is 30m euros, while Madrid can splash out hundreds of millions of euros because of shirt sales?

Ramzi said...

@Stigsby

Very true. Yet there is a huge gamble here:

1) the target market will not be sharply split like that between the two players. Assia/Brazil. The Cannibalization threat Exists. not to what extend, we never know. And the 70 M return claim is just another marketing technique. its more like "Come and get it before we run out of stick!".

2) Europe is an important market as well. Not as good as assia, but definitely better than south America (financially). And that's where the sales will split between the two players.

3) The economic crises must not be excluded.

4) Man Utd has a huge presence in assia (specially east assia where everyone wish to sell). If Man Utd bought and promoted a player like Benzima or even ribery. That will also have an impact on Ronaldo sales. Some fans are ronaldo fans and they buy his shirt, but there is a huge slice of customers who are Man Utd fans who used to buy the shirt of Man Utd best player and will keep doing so.

5) During the last two seasons, Kaka lost a lot of his marketing value. For sure Perez will promote, but if the team failed to start winning immediately, then forget it.

6) The team will still have to spend around 100 m strengthening the other departments. This time we are talking about the kind of sales that generate no "selling shirts" return. Defenders and hardworking midfielders. so Kaka and Ronaldo return on investment must not only cover their own cost but also the cost of buying the rest of the players transferred during this transfer market. Thats Huge!

7) There will be lot of sales this season, no doubt. But regardless of all the hype. Barcelona is still a better team, stronger. If RM failed to win titles, if the clash of egos started to take place, then it will be a backfire. the sales will drop dramatically next season.

8) What id -at least- one of them flopped and failed to impress at the new League? Next year sales?

All in all, its not a secure approach, but a pure gamble. A make or (hopefully) break.

zealot said...

Yes, Stigsby, you are right. But your explanation doesn't tell where have their 500mil euros of debt gone?

Where did they get the money? Read here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article6426983.ece

"Whatever debt they hold (and detail here is murky) is with local banks, many of whom are under political and social pressure not to tighten the screws. Real are too big and too important to fail or to come under the kind of debt pressures that affect traditional clubs. The club's social, political and economic significance dwarfs that of any other club in the world, with the possible exception of Barcelona. In that sense, they play by a different set of rules."

Stigsby said...

Hehe I know, it sounds very simple, but mostly the simplest explanation is the right one.

The reason why every club doesn't do it, is because of economics of scale, the bigger you get, the cheaper and easier it gets to reach the markets.

Believe it or not, but Real Madrid have been able to enter the Asian and Brazilian markets alot better than Barcelona has. The foundation for it was already set with the first Galactico team. While Barcelona count on home developed talents and the transfers more adding to the preset structure of the team, Real Madrid count on the new players to be the new basis of the team. Furthermore the two players they bough here are both Ballon d'Or winners, which counts alot more in these markets than the skills of say Xavi, Iniesta or Messi.

As I've said these huge transfers are connected with a big risk, they are gambling here! It's the same at the stock market, invest in stocks with higher risk and your revenue will potentially be higher, however you risk losing on it.

I'm glad that Barcelona doesn't use this model as I consider it unsafe, especially in these times of spreading economic crisis possibly inflicting on shirt sales. I'd much rather see the likes of our homegrowns like Messi etc. running around the pitch than some bought superstar, which might not even fit in the system.

Ramzi said...

@groga

what Stigsby said is true, but not as simple as you thought.

To do it you need to have an initial market Value as a club, and you need to have a huge fan base. Not all the teams have that right?

Beside, you need to have assets to cover the loans you are getting in the first place to finance the purchases you are planning to do. Only big teams have it.

And most importantly you need to have credibility. To be a person people believe in you that you know how to do business. Perez is that guy. But sometimes such guys abuse that reputation and cross the borders. If it worked people say "Genius!!" just because he is rumored to be good. If it failed then its only "Bad Luck"...

groga said...

Ramzi's number five about Kaka's dropped value over the last two years is so true. And I'm quite sure he never even had the marketing value that players like Ronaldinho, Beckham, Ronaldo or Messi had or have. He's just too dull (as a player ànd as a person) to be a real marketing icon.

Anonymous said...

They still have Ramos, Pepe, Lass, Diarra, Garay, Casillas. I don't think they need that many defensive midfielders and defenders really.

And they buy young, in their first half of their 20s, while we tend to buy players in their later 20s, which is hard to get money back if you need to sell. Madrid can get good money for players they wish to sell, like Sneijder, Van der Vaart, maybe Robben.

Stigsby said...

And yep Ramzi, you're completely right, it is a huge gamble to apply this business strategy. There are a number of risks connected to it of which you eloquently pointed out!

But yes I agree that they still have alot of spending to do, and I doubt that they will raise much revenue from the players they plan to sell. The market value of them dropped drastically this season also enforced with the fact that Real Madrid want to get rid of them.

Anonymous said...

Ramzi:

"To do it you need to have an initial market Value as a club, and you need to have a huge fan base. Not all the teams have that right?"

So why doesn't Barcelona do it?

Ramzi said...

Stigsby

Believe it or not, but Real Madrid have been able to enter the Asian and Brazilian markets alot better than Barcelona has.

Hm...its a mix of "better" and "earlier" actually. And it is more related to the big Mess Barcelona had before Laporta Era than RM smartness. Lately Barcelona invaded lot of Markets. The big bones mainly. The US where the football brand in general is rapidly improving, in Asia (even though its actually the EPL teams that compete there, thanks for the Liga poor management), and in the Arab Gulf, the mine of gold.

Its true that The two Ballon d'Or winners have an edge over Iniesta-Xavi-Messi. But for how long? thats the point I raised before:Results. I think Iniesta image in particular is improving dramatically. the reasons that caused his poor marketing profile are exactly the reasons that is giving him the high value at the moment. Being an Anti-Diva. With time it will stamp his image on stone. With all the return that fact will generate.

Messi marketing Value is improving all the time. he is the future Ballon d'Or winners after all.

So regardless of what happened so far. the future still brighter for Barcelona.

croatia boy said...

thay can buy every player on the earth...they never will be bigger club than barcelona...i ask myself how can anyone like them??
i dont know where thay get money??...
like that we can give Numancia 500 mil.euros...and they can buy kaka and c.ronaldo to...so lets go chill for them...
F.C.Barcelona until death.

Anonymous said...

Diarra will soon be fit for Real Madrid, so that is basically a new signing for them, he is one of the best defensive midfielders in the world I must admit. All Madrid needs is some new backup players for defense and maybe a new right back (Maicon has been heavily linked with them) pushing Ramos in the middle with Pepe, and they look like a hell of a team.

Stigsby said...

No doubt Ramzi, FC Barcelona is heading into a great period. The club has turned into a money machine and it will only get better over time.

You all should be glad that FC Barcelona does not have to apply this business strategy to be successful, yes Real Madrid gets some high profile players, but if you all have to admit it, would you feel the same for Barca if this was the way they ran the business?

R10FCB said...

man u have 80 million to spend on ribery now. and no doubt after their selling of ronaldo they will go for a top winger, and who better than ribery. i just hope that some how, barce gets him.

Anonymous said...

Ribery is out of the question now for us. We have to look in the garbage trash because we can't compete with Man U's money after Ronaldo sale and Real Madrid who supposedly have huge money despite being a joke in Europe while we have won 2 CLs. Doesn't seem to count for anything. Our transfer budget is 30m while Madrid has 250m...Prepare for Benayoun, Toni and Bruno Alves for 25m euros.

Ramzi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Ribery has stated that he does not intend to move to England and Real Madrid have said that they cannot sign him. We are also his first option because of our good friendship with Bayern and because of the many french speakers at Barca. So there is still a chance but if not then Robinho would be fine. I want to the Real Madrid fans faces when Robinho scores against them.

Ramzi said...

They still have Ramos, Pepe, Lass, Diarra, Garay, Casillas. I don't think they need that many defensive midfielders and defenders really.

1) Forget about Garay.
2) ok who else they have? To have a starting eleven they still need two quality defenders. thats at least 40 M. then you need Back ups. Because good players win you games, but its the squad that win you titles. For this investment to have a return, they need a squad capable of competing both in CL and the Liga. They will spend the other 100 M without doubt.

"To do it you need to have an initial market Value as a club, and you need to have a huge fan base. Not all the teams have that right?

So why doesn't Barcelona do it?"


Good question. We are talking about taking loans, buying players, and counting on the players return on investment to pay the initial loan.

Why will we do it? We have a great squad already. Not that desperate by any mean. beside:

1) Barcelona was under a huge debt before(mostly because of some foolish transfers we used to make). Some people may not know, but there was a big threat few years ago that Barcelona would be forced to sell some of their most Valued assets to pay loans (there was an unconfirmed rumor that the Nou camp was under a huge threat). So we were not in a strong position to plan to get more loans.

2) Barcelona is not a commercial entity. In business (and organizations in general) there is something called "Mission statement" which explains what you are. You need to stick to it. No matter how mouthwatering some options may sound. Because the moment you start doing big compromises you lose your path and slip little by little into the mess. Thats one of the reasons I respect Athletic Bilbao.

3) The shirt sponsor have a big impact as well, we dont have that.

And let me point out a very important point:

There is a difference between "we cant" and "we don't want". If anyone think that Barcelona cant compete financially, then let me say that this is an old expired news. Barcelona can get a bigger loan at the moment than any other team can get. Beside their initial big pocket money.

We are following a certain model since Laporta board started running the club. And it has been extremely successful. Sport wise and Business wise. Why changing it to a kind of Chelsea/madrid style while the other teams are only dreaming if they can have the same model as ours?

Anonymous said...

Anony: Ribery has never said that he will never move to England. Real Madrid has never said that they "cannot" sign him. Our "friendship" with Bayern means nothing, it is all about who gives the best price, and we are a dirt poor club these days compared to ManU, Chelsea and Madrid who can splash out 60m+ for Ribery.

R10FCB said...

anyone got a spare 80 million lying around to give to barca?

acsmith843 said...

I'm assuming we can say goodbye to the likes of Ribery, Benzema, and anyone else that Manchester United wants now...........

Anonymous said...

Forget about Garay? He is a good young defender they bought for 11m euros just brought back from loan. He is part of the backup defenders. They have Pepe and Ramos in the middle, all they need is a right back which they look to be getting, and maybe a new left back for Marcelo. They don't need 100m euros for this. A left-back in the Filipe range (8-10m euros) and maybe Srna (12-14m) or Maicon (25-30m) for right back. They can easily fix their defence for 30-40m euros.

Anonymous said...

we can call them "Real Stupid CF" can't we?

TengkuAmir10 said...

madrid will be better than barca next season if barca dont get at least 1 star player who has showed promise in the past.im serious about this dude.

Ramzi said...

Yeap, Forget about Garay.

I am not sure based on what you are rating him. He spent most of the season injured (which is exactly y Barcelona hesitated to sign him), then when he came back from injury, he failed to win back a place as a starter. Thats with a humble-respectful- team.

He showed lot of quality before. But at the moment he is at most on the same level as Caceres who is already an international footballer. He may end up being better or worse. At the moment, he is not the new Baresi by any mean.

Its sick that we started to write fake legends about RM here. The Diarras are the best in the world? Thats a joke right? Gago? we've seen two of the three playing against Xavi-Iniesta in the classico, not sure why people are impressed about them.

Lets wait and see Pepe performance without being orchestrated by Canavaro. A 5 M fullback will be good as a back up at Barcelona, if he will be a starter at RM then good luck.

Now Barcelona squad sounds weak? And if we do not sign a player we will fail next season?

sometimes its so difficult to understand some people.

Yet, dont worry. We will have our signings.

i_love_boobs_and_barca said...

Does anyone know is Barcelona in debt? If yes, how much?

Marc4barca said...

by signing both kaka and ronaldo, they have changed the market but the good thing is i can't see ribery going real madrid with both kaka and ronaldo there and with the money the spent already, they can't make anymore high profile signings, david villa, zlatan, mascherano, vidic etc are all out the question now and if they do manage to spend another huge some of money for another player then that means platini needs to change something in the market to stop clubs from spending such outrageous fees, the good news is real madrid will win nothing next season and will drop further in debt cause they might want to use prize money as a way to settle some of it. ronaldo will realize that this is spain and our defenders don't rush at player wildly like in england and they can prove annoying in attack, not to mention real madrid looks so dangerous now that they will have to face defensive football non stop like barcelona. i am depressed still to see how quickly clubs are willing to release their best players, it shows how much money has taken over our sport. there was no fight to keep the players, there was no multiple bids, there was just one and that one signed the player, how sad. TREBLE REPEAT VISCA EL BARCA!!! no matter who real sign.

groga said...

I remember that last year quite a lot people were attacking the board for not having signed Rafael Van der Vaart...

There's something about Madrid that makes people fail there.

blaugrana1 said...

TO RAMZI :

i believe that yes we will fail next year unless we sign hungry eager top class players (ribery, ibra or benzema, a rb and lb and an attacking midfielder).

The reason i believe this is that, when a team wins all there is in one season, complacency and laziness occurs in the next unless we refresh our squad.

Having the same squad for two seasons is a bad idea. i am not saying overhauling the time ! No, but having ribery is a must! etoo is the best striker IMO, but if ibra or benzema come its good as well.

In addition, our RB and LB are occupied by one player each we need backups !

Im sure Barca will sign, pep isnt stupid to not refresh the squad. But everytime we take a step forward from madrid (IN TERMS OF WORLD IMAGE) they come back and beat us by two steps! That is y i think we need a star player.

Look at it like this, homegrown players (spanish) do not generate much commercial value and at the moment all we have is Henry , Messi and Eto (again commercial value), iniesta ok he is gaining value, but having a foreign player lifts the comercial value as well

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Anonymous said...

Garay was most of the season injured and then he failed to win back his place? This is not true. He played 24 games as a starter this season and did well together with Marcano. Nobody is saying he is the new Baresi, but as a backup defender he is good enough. The same with Marcelo as a backup.

Players like Filipe is certainly solid and a team doesn't need world class players on every position to be the best (there are barely any real world class left backs in the world anyay). We won the champions league with Oleguer and Belletti in defence remember? Not exactly world beaters.

Madrid can get backups on the cheap, hell, we are looking at Sartor for free as a backup right back. All Madrid needs is a couple of first 11 defenders, maybe Albiol from Valencia, Filipe, Cissocko or maybe Srna or someone else and they are set.

I think Diarra was one of the main reasons why they won back-to-back La Liga titles. He gave their defence crucial protection.

groga said...

"I think Diarra was one of the main reasons why they won back-to-back La Liga titles."


That's probably why they want to sell him now because they tink Lass (the other Diarra) is better...

SimonP said...

Stop the complaining! The way I see it even with all the transfers Real make there are only one player I would put in a Barca-11 and that's Casillas.

CASILLAS vs Valdes

Ramos vs ALVES
Pepe vs PUYOL
Garay vs PIQUÉ
Marcelo vs ABIDAL

Robben vs MESSI
Diarra vs TOURÉ
Kaká vs XAVI
Ronaldo vs INIESTA

Higuain vs ETO'O
Raúl vs HENRY

Dolce said...

My theory is that Perez knows that buying big is the only way to catch Barca as soon as possible. He wants to stop Barca´s reign right now and not in 2012. He spends over 200 million now in order to get several superstars, then he has to invest much less in 2010. In early 2000´s he landed "only" one megastar per summer, now he doesnt have time to wait years to get success. Millions are just numbers for him and he is ready to spend huge money if he gets want he wants. He sees only opportunities and not any risks what comes to spending on players. He knows that RM will now get also much more revenues(merchandise, sponsors and ticket money, image rights etc) and he doest just stare at the price tag. But its disgusting to see how easily Milan and United now sold Kaka and Ronaldo after they rejected Calderon´s endless offers. Barca is still a better team but now they must buy Ribery otherwise things could get too hard.

Anonymous said...

Not sure if anyone mentioned this above, but for those wondering where the money is coming from... I would have to believe that some of this money is sponsored, much like Adidas sponsoring a good part of David Beckham's 500m transfer to L.A. Galaxy. Adidas will sell quite a few shirts now that Ronaldo will be wearing an Adidas shirt... just a thought.

Anonymous said...

So tell me why don't we get image rights of our own players? It is too simple to say that madrid will just earn back the money because of sponsorships, merchandise and whatnot.

Anonymous said...

That's what I'm saying... it wasn't all Madrid's money. There may be a company sponsoring part of the transfer... if thats the case, it wouldn't be Madrid's money to earn... the company sponsoring the transfer is hoping to get their money back through shirt sales, etc.

Anonymous said...

...not to mention the free advertising that a company like Adidas will be getting. There will be and Adidas logo under every picture of this guy's face... who happens to be posted everywhere. Well worth putting up a 40-50m in their eyes...

Anonymous said...

Anony, advertising is nothing new. Shirt sales is nothing new. The question is how Madrid can splash out like this and all other clubs in the world can only dream of using this kind of money.

Anonymous said...

Ok, I'm not trying to argue... we all know Madrid doesn't have this kind of money to spend and there is speculation in the posts above about where the money is coming from… I thought a sponsorship was a fairly logical answer since companies like Adidas have done it in the past... they certainly aren't picking it off of trees.

Anonymous said...

…and you’re right… other clubs can’t spend this kind of money… neither can Madrid. It’s only when a multibillion dollar company like Adidas hands money out like they did in the 500m Beckham deal.

Anonymous said...

so you are saying that adidas will not give any club any money for transfers, but they will hand 50m euros to madrid for transfers? Why would they do that and not do it to Barcelona, Man U, Inter, Chelsea or anyone else?

Anonymous said...

you know i really dont like kaka and i dislike ronaldo but i cant agree with you all that they will flop,Real's game will improve def. from last seasons no questions asked.although the rest of the team may flop, oh and with still 100mill to spend they will def. go after David Silva, and i also think if Ribery and Ibra come to spain it will be great for La Liga in terms of competition and ratings, all of the sudden EPL is not looking so good

SimonP said...

Well Adidas wouldn't give any money to Barca since we are sponsored by Nike... They wouldn't sponsor the move of CR7 since he is a Nike player as well. Nike and Adidas want they starplayers to play in their own teams and sometimes make that happen.

After all the most exposure a player get is on the pitch and what he wears on the pitch is what the team wears.

InieStar said...

I can understand why people say: We need, We have to, otherwise....!

The situation is as Ramzi and Stigsby say right now. We DON'T a player like Ibra and Ribery if the players club ask 50mio euro for him. That is not our mission statement.

I will be the first one who says that a team full of superstars is tempting, but that is what you do in Football Manager. In the real life, I'm charmed and in love in the way Barca play, act, and do business. I love that young players have the possibility in gaining a 1st. team spot.

So make it clear. Barca COULD have that amount of money that Real have available atm. But it would mean; Change of mission statement and that includes everything Barca stands for. Therefore it will not happend. And why should Barca make a loan as Real is doing? We are currently getting closer to pay off the last loan we made.( Made in the era before Laporta). And as Ramzi and Stigsby pointed out, Barca is a money machine right now and it will only continue.

Barca will be bigger on the asian and american market, but it will not be because we land a star using 50-70 mio euros on him. It will be through promoting tours where the continents can see our OWN homegrowing stars. Wait and see, Spain is a top candidate to winning WM and that is with a lot of Barca material. And it is not players we signed for mios of euros. It is players who started in Barcelona, more precisely in La Masia. And people will know that.

So don't rush it and say that Barca will lose the transfer run. We are just doing another policy than Real Madrid.

Ps.

The commercial director for Barca, at least I think it was that position he had, had just said that he is surprised where Real got all those money from... And that around 30 mio shirts needs to be bought to get the amount in again.

Taking that in advance those 2 players(kaka and ronaldo) needs to sell for the rest of what they sign. Because people mainly sign offensive players. So that will be Kaka and Ronaldo shirt sale getting in around 300 mio euros.


més que un club

Anonymous said...

Barcelona is clearly not a money-making machine like madrid, because apparently adidas likes to give madrid huge money for transfers, according to comments here.

You are saying we are the biggest in america and asia because we have homegrown players, and we will refuse to buy the best players which will give us more marketing potential like real madrid does? Surely, a combination of our homegrown players and buying the best players would be the best solution? To think that we can compete with simply growing our own players, and leaving all the star players to madrid is delusional.

Barcelona has always had many star players bought in, the biggest names have been foreign. I think the problem is that Madrid simply has way more money than barcelona as a result of a better business model focused on marketing. Because they surely aren't getting much money from their CL campaigns lately.

pd said...

What the 2 transfers shows us is that madrid can never produce talents of their own... in the time of recession madrid can save some money by closing down their "youth academy" which i think they hardly use and also stop using scouts from now on... you dont need a scout to identify players like kaka and ronaldo....

one thing is for sure that the transfer market will never be the same... players worth 20 mill will now be worth for atleast 30 to 35.... now i am scared to even think abt the asking price for silva, villa , ribery etc....

the 2 players will definetly have an impact on the league... we cannot live in the denial...

i just hoped that barca will buy couple of players before the kaka and ronaldo deal.... cos now i think barca will have to pay some more money even to attract mediocre players....

but as a barca fan i believe the club is in great hands and with such good team chemistry we can do wonders.... money cannot buy you trophies....

InieStar said...

Could people soon make an id instead of being anony everytime?

It's either you don't know how to do it, which there is a helping link somewhere here otherwise you won't stand by what you say with a name. No offense though...

They are a money machine... But the Beckham case was that, he was adidas sponsored. So from an Adidas sponsored club to an Adidas sponsored club. And since USA is a huge upcoming market for football or at least they would like it to be. Adidas thought it was a good investment to get beckham to USA.

And of course I didn't meant that we should have a team only based on players made from our own academy... Read between the lines... And furthermore I don't say we ARE the biggest, I'm saying we are getting bigger!

So we are almost saying the same, you just missread what i wrote:)

Anonymous said...

"so you are saying that adidas will not give any club any money for transfers, but they will hand 50m euros to madrid for transfers? Why would they do that and not do it to Barcelona, Man U, Inter, Chelsea or anyone else?"

I'm not saying that at all... Adidas would probably be willing to give money to any Adidas sponsored club for the transfer of World Player of the Year.

Don Luis said...

Cant wait for El Classico!

viva Barcelona!

Boo Franco CF!

Dolce said...

The good thing is that Barca has presidential elections next year and whatever happens in Liga or in CL, the guy who wants to win must spend on new players. But the problem is that Pep may not want to continue as a coach after Laporta´s era ends. Barca should get more quality and quantity and not just buy a replacement for Eto'o, our squad is so thin that we cant cope with many key players injuries.

Anonymous said...

So you think Nike will give us 50m euros so we can get a Nike player? Do you think we can get a Nike superstar this way? No way!

Anonymous said...

Ribery is adidas. Let us ask Nike for 50m euros to so we can make Ribery Barcelona player.

Martin Engelin said...

YES!! Omg I'm so happy. Real signing Ronaldo for that much. Seriously Perez is crazy. Ronaldo will flopp in Real. No way he will play very good, and even if he does, RM don't have much money left too strenthen their def. Damn Real Madrid are stupid. Hopefully now we'll have Ibra and Ribery for ourselves. :D

Anonymous said...

You are acting like this is some foreign concept that I'm making up... it's been done in the past... not sure why you’re trying to discount the possibility? How exactly do you think L.A. Galaxy planed on coughing up 250m for Beckham’s salary? Do you have a more plausible suggestion on where they’re getting the money?

Anonymous said...

...and Ribery is no Critiano Ronaldo in the world of advertising marketability… faces like Beckham and Ronadlo rake in hundreds of millions in merchandising sales.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I discount that possibility. We are not getting any money from Nike to buy big Adidas players, there are lots of Adidas players that are "marketable" as you say. I don't know how madrid got these kind of money for Kaka, Ronaldo and soon Villa and some others as well, but saying that they get them because Adidas give them huge money for transfer fees is not credible. Nike dont give us a penny for transfers and no other team gets it either.

Nzuu said...

I think some of us (Barca fans) are getting panicky too quickly. Barca have a football philosophy and a transfer policy unique from a team like Real madrid.

Believe me, I would like Franck Ribery, but if Bayern Munich want 60million for him then screw them. Ibrahimovic is another player who is ridiculously priced and I don't care how much we need to refresh our team, splashing around money like Madrid and Man City is not our style.

And I notice how someone in the above comments said that we need to buy the best players.... Uhmm I can openly say that we have the best players in the world.

In this very team, we have the first , second and third best players in the world. You know them.

mes que un club!!

Anonymous said...

Ok, you've lost me... Nike's relationship with Barcelona has nothing to do with Adidas possibly sponsoring a C. Ronaldo transfer… Adidas has a history of doing this and it’s not far fetched to think that it’s a possibility here… speculative, yes… out of the question, no.

As for Nike, they give Barcelona tons of money every year… an annual fee plus royalties on Nike's sales of Barcelona products and additional bonus payments depending on yearly performances. If you think that they haven’t thrown some extra cash in Barcelona’s pocket to obtain a high profile transfer, you’re probably being naïve… they make hundreds of millions of dollars on merchandise sales and paying Barcelona a little extra to pull a high profile player would be in their best interest.

Xaviniesta said...

i agree with nzuu, except that madrids mega double signing would certainly affect the transfer market in ways not yet fully revealed but i'm still counting on the fact that the players we want would join us for the right reasons and agree to whats reasonble accrdg to sane human minds, also lets not talk as if our historical treble counts for nothing cos it does and do not discount the growing worldwide popularity and prestige that it has brought to this team, all these talks abt grabbing players now before madrid take them out of the market is jerk of knee imo, i dont see any reason for panic/despair. and yes madrid is lightyeras ahead of us in terms of marketing strategy and all that but their glory/prestige has somewhat waned they are not the madrid of the 1st galactico era and even that is a tarnished image having fallen short of the promise and this folly of splashing money on footballs biggest names would only cast them in a worse light believe it or not not everyone is enamored by the way Perez is carrying on like hes king of the world. we footy fans understand the dynamics happening here, we appreciate its a gamble that can pay off etc but ordinary people dont, they only see a team copping out and buying its way to glory it leaves a bad taste in the mouth, thats why i'm not worried for our barca nor am i overly concerning myslf that Perez is shaping a team full of balon d'or/wpoty etc they still ahve to prove they can play as a team + i still dont see them matching our talents and chemistry on the field head to head man to man we are excellence madrid cannot match, which is why i want laporta txiki pep et al to proceed as prudently as possible not rush things and buy up everyone thats anyone in the market. i want them to calmly assess WHAT WE NEED in terms of reinforcements/replacements. I think on the contrary it might be easier negotiating renewal contracts now cos our players if they have ambition and look to the future would want to stay in la liga for the coming exciting times, they should be challenged by the battle that is shaping up. sobriety should dictate us now, 40 mil v 300 mil kitty, david and goliath, we are the treble winners yet now madrid is (funnily enough) perceived as the giant, we are the underdogs so hopefully teams we are wanting players from would see that maybe they should come to our aid lol fantasy thought but its not always money that moves men and if the worst happens that we cannot get our target signings lets build as our resources allow us a team that may not have all these stars but are talented as they are hardworking maybe thats the team that would produce another 6-2and who knows maybe a repeat but then it that doesnt happen we have a treble they dont lol Visca el Barca!

Anonymous said...

OK, let us ask Nike for money to buy a huge player then. If they don't want to give us money, we should threaten to switch to Adidas who will give us all the money needed to buy the best players.

Anonymous said...

Yeah… let's threaten our biggest sponsor, the world's largest sports equipment supplier, and get blackballed from ever doing business with them again… good strategy. I think you’re exaggerating this a bit… the fact is, Adidas and Nike have helped fund transfers in the past… with all of the questions surrounding the origin of Madrid’s new found budget, I don’t think it’s crazy to think that they’ve had outside help… why not from one of the companies who would benefit the most from the move?

Anonymous said...

Why shouldn't we play hardball with Nike? If Adidas give huge money and special treatment to one of their clubs, surely we should argue that the best team in the universe deserve the same treatment from our shirt sponsor? And how do other Adidas clubs react to the special treatment given to Madrid?

I do agree that Madrid might have gotten some outside help, from the government of Madrid, banks and other shady stuff. I wouldn't be suprised if there have been threats of blackmailing either, maybe publicize some photos that will destroy marriages or other mafioso tactics.

Don Luis said...

Nike wants Franck Ribery and Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Barcelona.

CR is sponsored by Nike but playing for Adidas sponsored club.

Messi the opposite.

But I like this Barca team, just re-sign Eto'o and Toure. Add a sub for the RB/LB spot. Maybe we should really make a strong push to get Ribery or Silva.

Anonymous said...

"...how do other Adidas clubs react to the special treatment given to Madrid?"

...probably the same way Flamengo feel about Nike pushing Ronaldo to Corinthians... I'm sure it pisses them off.

Hung said...

one of the most discussed topic in fcbt!

paris hilton hooks up with c ronaldo ... this just put a smile on my face :-)

http://x17online.com/celebrities/paris_hilton/x17_xclusive_paris_hooks_up_with_cristiano_ronaldo-06112009.php

kamikaze kontiki said...

But he is gay. She could hook up with me instead. I ll believe this when I see a new Paris homevideo/stolen tape out!

And I want to see this page make it to 100 comments. Where did the 2 Nike-Adidas anonys go?

Hung said...

I think Perez told him to hook up with Paris to promote for the coming jersey sale

Barca! said...

Ok.... The usual galactico transfer tactic..... I think that this is going to affect the transfer market primarily about what is outrageous and overpaid or not. Initially, I agree with previous comments that this is going to be good for the RM fans' moral. But, more or less, this is going to be a big flop. It is like an experimental project that some scientists carried out a few years ago. In their attempt to design the image of the most beautiful human being ever, they carefully selected and gathered all that human characteristics considered as nicest. (the nicest eyes, lips, nose, hair ect.) The result of this? It was awful... A real monster... What I mean is that it doesn't worth luring all the big names from other teams, but develop your own stars. Because there are some overrated players but some underrated too. And all of the underrated ones can also do their best in certain conditions. For example, Pique, who in ManUtd was benched all the time, now is Barca's Piquembauer! So, overpaying doesn't mean creating a good team. It's about selling some more fake jerseys, stickers or expired Ronaldo and Kaka candies... Our whole team cost is just below the Kaka cost, but is the one which really gives joy to the fans, not only by the trophies but also by the uniting spirit. (Not to mention the big hole in the RM economics....)

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