In European football, off-season is high season for football agents trying to sell their players to clubs for loads of money. So far, this year’s high season has been a successful one. Falcao left Atlético Madrid for €60 million to join new French First League Club Monaco. Neymar left his home country Brazil to continue his career with Barcelona. The Catalans paid €57 million. In the last few days, Paris St-Germain confirmed the transfer of Uruguay’s international player Edinson Cavani from Naples. The French club is reportedly paying €54 million for him.
These sums are crazy and obscene. In an interview with the Swiss business weekly Handelszeitung, German football legend Günter Netzer did not mince his words for the transfer pricing phenomenon: “The alleged transfer fees are entirely unreasonable, beyond good and evil. Such excesses are regrettable. No player is worth these sums,” he said.
Now, some might say, Netzer is an old man from old times. But Netzer is not only a former German international player; he is also a director of Swiss sports marketing company Infront. And as such, still an active player in the commercial side of the international football business.
And he is right with his judgment. Hardly any footballer transferred for record sums has proved worth his money. Looking at it from a purely economic view, only David Beckham comes to my mind as someone who provided deal value. Real Madrid paid €61 million for him. The club then participated in Beckham’s advertising income, earning €52 million. The club also sold more than five million jerseys with the glamour boy’s name on the back – contributing more that €84 million.
This is probably the only defence for paying such huge transfer sums for players like Beckham. The former English football international was more than a football player. He was, and still is, well known globally with an appeal to both males and females. He’s a football icon.
The same is probably true of Cristiano Ronaldo, the most expensive football player ever. According to statistics gained by the website transfermarkt.com, Real Madrid paid €94 million to win Ronaldo from Manchester United.
And all the other players? In the Top Ten list of all times transfer fees, there are only two players that are not active anymore: Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo.
Number three after Cristiano Ronaldo and Zidane, is Zlatan Ibrahimovic. In 2009, Barcelona paid €69.5 million to Inter Milan to secure the services of the Swedish international. One year later, he went back to Milan to play for Berlusconi’s AC Milan. One year after that he switched to Qatar-funded Paris St-Germain. Now, there are rumours about him wanting to leave the club.
Also in 2009, Real Madrid paid €65 million for Kaka. The Brazilian – number four on the all time highest-priced list. Since joining Real Madrid he has played just 85 games in four years.
Number seven, and therefore behind Luis Figo and Falcao, is another man that has yet to prove he is worth the money paid for him: Chelsea’s Fernando Torres was worth €58,5 million. Since his arrival at Chelsea two years ago, the striker and top scorer at Euro 2008, has only scored 15 times. Falcao, Hulk, Hernan Crespo – all players in the Top Ten list – also have still to prove to be worth the millions that have been paid for them.
The examples back-up Günter Netzer’s opinion and should be a warning to all football managers. But as long as there are billionaires willing to fund a football club for their own pleasure without consideration of any business plan, the transfer fees will continuously increase to fantastic sums. To put it in the words of Netzer: “The world has gone mad, football is even crazier.”
Jean Francois Tanda is a leading investigative journalist specialising in international sports. He writes for weekly Swiss business newspaper Handelszeitung.