There were few of them, but they greatly influenced the realities of football life.
Chelsea have spent €611m in the two transfer windows since the arrival of US investor Todd Boeli. Acquisitions of this magnitude have never gone unnoticed in football. The clubs from which the players were bought received large sums and moved in the transfer market and in most cases spent a large part of it. Thus, there was a large chain of transitions across Europe.
The first big leap was after the purchase of Real Madrid in the late 2000s
On 1 June 2009, Pérez became president of Real Madrid for the second time. He was the only candidate for this position. After his arrival, he loudly announced the creation of a new Galacticos and in a few weeks spent more than 200 million euros on the purchase of players from the club.
The Creamers set a new transfer record by paying out €94m for Cristiano Ronaldo, who won the 2008 Ballon d’Or. Other signings included Brazilian Kaka, who received this award a year before the Portuguese . Real Madrid paid Milan 65 million euros for the Brazilian. A young French striker from Lyon, Karim Benzema, was also bought, for which he had to shell out 65 million euros. The other big move was Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso. The Spaniards paid 35 million euros for the defender. In total, during the 2009 summer transfer window, Real Madrid spent €258 million and acquired 8 players.
A large purchase caused a negative reaction from Barcelona’s competitors. According to Blue Garnet chairman Laporta, the club’s aggressive transfer policy has unnecessarily inflated player prices this summer, but Barcelona are not willing to throw away money to compete with their more principled rivals.
Sure, we could get into debt, like they did in Madrid, but that’s not our style of managing the club. We create Ballon d’Or winners, others have to buy them.
A major new transfer record update leaves an indelible mark
In the summer of 2017, the football world was literally blown up by a formalized agreement PSG. The Parisians have allocated 222 million euros for the Brazilian Neymar, which is more than 2 times the amount that Barcelona paid for him.
Neymar’s move to PSG it caused a sort of domino effect. Barcelona, having collected a large amount, entered the transfer market in search of a replacement for the Brazilian, and the clubs she approached knew the needs of the Blaugrana well and acted from a position of strength, demanding large sums for the own players.
Due to the difficulties and Borussia Dortmund’s reluctance to sell Ousman Dembele, Barcelona still managed to make the transfer, but had to pay 120 million euros for the player. That same summer, the Blue Garnets tried to get Liverpool to sell Coutinho, but England proved to be more stubborn managers. Barcelona got the player just six months later for 160 million euros.
With the funds received from the Catalan club, Liverpool immediately acquired Virgil van Dijk for 85 million euros, who at that time became the most expensive defender in history. And six months later, Liverpool made Alisson the most expensive goalkeeper in history, paying 62.5 million euros for his transfer to Italian Roma.
A year after moving to Paris, information appeared about Neymar’s desire to return to Barcelona, but PSG asked the Catalan club for a higher amount than it had previously paid for the Brazilian.
Teams are spending less due to the coronavirus
According to the report of the International Center for Sports Research (CES extension), the pandemic has reduced the average cost of players by 28%. At the same time, some of them, the most expensive, have fallen in price much more. Factors calculated included player age, contract length, as well as recent performance. Above all, players with short-term deals have fallen in price.
In 2019, the club’s total spend on transfers was €6.65bn, up the same 28% on its 2020 spend. Even less was spent on acquisitions in 2021 at €3.65bn, the lowest since 2015.
Since then, football has slowly come to its senses and the English Premier League has risen faster. Now the major transfers are somehow connected with the championship of England. For comparison, if we take the period between 2012-2021, only four English clubs were in the top 10 most expensive teams, but for 2020-2021 there are already 7 English clubs in this ranking. The exceptions were Juventus, Red Bull and PSG.
It is worth noting that there are very few Englishmen in the top 20 in terms of transfers for sale – only 4 out of 20. In the top spots, mainly Spanish clubs. In the Iberian Peninsula to this day there are serious financial problems. Barcelona, for example, was forced to use economic leverage in the form of assets in order not to go bankrupt and continue its existence. The sale of Messi, the reduction of the paycheck and the impossibility of making large expenses are linked to this.
