HOW MADRID CHANGED THE FACE OF FOOTBALLTRANSFER MARKET

Madrid announced another Galactico signing. James Rodriguez arrived from Monaco fc for a record fee of £63 million (17,412,240,000 billion naira). Madrid president Florentino Perez has made his statement. The big question has been, “does James Rodriguez, an unproven talent deserve such a price tag? Does Madrid really need him? Understandably, Madrid signed James so as to take the spotlight away from Suarez transfer to Barcelona for £75 million (20,728,857,180 billion naira). You can call today football, ‘money league’. Madrid revolutionised the face of transfer market with marquee signings. In 2001, money-bag Madrid president, Florentino Perez announced the Galactico era by signing Zinedine Zidane for £46 million, a record fee that time. Figo has been signed earlier for £37 million from
Barcelona fc. This brought a period of success but it was short-lived. Makelele the defensive shield of the team was sold by Perez for requesting a pay rise. Perez resigned in 2006 after some period of failure.

 Perez was re-elected as president of Madrid fc in 2009 and immediately outlined his goals. The Galactico era is back. He was not joking. He quickly sanctioned the transfer of Kaka from AC Milan for a fee of £56 million and Cristiano Ronaldo for a world record fee of £80 million from Manchester United. Barcelona fc countered these signings by acquiring Ibrahimovic from Inter Milan for £59 million. These signings did not bring immediate success for Madrid but it brought them back to the forefront of European football. The untiring Perez shook the transfer market again in 2013, signing Gareth Bale from Tottenham for a record fee of £86 million (23,769,089,575 billion naira) the highest ever transfer fee in the world. This came of a fantastic season for Bale wining the best player in English League (2012/2013 season). It was a big hit as they won the European Champions League and Spanish Copa dey Rey in 2013/2014 season after spending high. Barcelona bought Neymar for £48.6 million from Santos fc to complement Messi in attack.

Other elite clubs have joined the trend. Chelsea bought Torres from Liverpool fc for £50 million, the record British transfer. PSG bought Cavani for £51 million from Napoli fc and David Luiz from Chelsea fc for £50 million. This is the record transfer for a defender. Manchester City and PSG have been active in the transfer market after the take-over of the clubs by Abu Dhabi groups. They can sign any player from any club for any price. Even as thrifty as Arsenal fc is, they brought in Mesut Ozil from Madrid for £42 million, the second highest in England behind Torres.

How do these clubs make their money after such heavy spending even in the face of global recession? Deloitte's football money league 2013 is out and it reveals that Real Madrid has not only topped the list once again but that the Spanish club has become the first sports club to surpass the €500m revenue threshold in a single year. They were followed by Barcelona and Manchester United. Florentino Perez once said, ‘we don’t pay for big players, they pay for themselves’. Real Madrid, Barcelona and other top clubs have strong marketing brand in Asia. They also have a large share of the broadcasting rights in their leagues. Pérez aggressively market the team globally, and court some of the world's biggest multinationals for sponsorship. They make approximately 39% of that proceeding from E-marketing and commercial activities, and 38% from television rights. Pérez has often bragged that Zinedine Zidane's 75 million Euro capture was "the cheapest signing I made as president", because of the extra income he generated. The lesson, presumably, is that signing players like this pays for itself.