Real Madrid blow last two years' sales revenue on hot prospects
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With Cristiano Ronaldo getting ever closer to a new challenge away from the Bernabéu, Real Madrid may have to break the bank in order to undertake a major investment in a player, something not seen at the club since the signing of Gareth Bale in 2013 for 101 million euros.
The ins and outs at Real Madrid
Madrid has made a net gain over the past two summer transfer windows. Since the summer of 2016 the club has brought in 176 million euros in player sales. In various recent deals they have recouped money for Mascarell (6 million euros after move from Eintracht Frankfurt to Schalke), Lienhart (€2m from Freiburg) and Lucas Torro (€1.8m from Eintracht). In the summer of 2017 were Morata (€80m, Chelsea), Danilo (€30m, Man City), James (€13m for a year of the loan/transfer to Bayern), Mariano (€8m, Lyon), Diego Llorente (€7m, Real Sociedad) and Burgui (€3m, Alavés). A year earlier, in 2016, revenue was raised from the sales of Jesé (€25m, PSG), Cheryshev (€7m, Villarreal), Medrán (€1.5m, Valencia) and Mascarell (€1m, Eintracht).
In total these movements made 176 million euros. But this revenue still comes in less than the outlay over the same time period, a total of 215 million.
Instead of 'Galáctico' signings, the likes we saw during Florentino Pérez' first stint in command and in the first year following his return in 2009 (Cristiano, Kaká, Benzema and Xabi Alonso to name but a few), Madrid's recent policy has been based on investing in the future. That 215 million spent since 2016 has gone on Odriozola (35), Rodrygo (45), Lunin (8.5), Vinicius Jr (45), Theo Hernández (30), Ceballos (16.5), Morata (30) and Sergio Díaz (5).
Real Madrid: transfer market 2018?
Although the club generated income of 674.6 million euros (financial year 2016-17), the idea at the top was not to go down the route seen at PSG and Manchester City but to target young potential early and snap them up.
How this summer will go is yet to be seen but many believe that Real Madrid will dig deep and add to those moves at the top end of the records: Neymar (€222m), Mbappé (€180m), Coutinho (€160m), Dembélé (€115m), Pogba (€105m), Bale (€101m), Higuain (€96m), Lukaku (€84.7m), Luis Suarez (€81m) and Van Dijk (€78m).
