Real Madrid summer player sales already better than most
Although the focus has been on Zinedine Zidane's new project signings, the money recouped has now reached more than five of the last nine seasons.
The transformation that is taking shape at Real Madrid is not only about the incorporation of top players of the quality of Eden Hazard and luka Jovic. Just as important to Zinedine Zidane and Florentino Pérez' plans are the players that form a part of the 'exit operation'. And with sales of Marcos Llorente and Mateo Kovacic now confirmed, Los Blancos have recouped 85 million euros, putting them in a position to potentially bring in a record value in player sales.
Real Madrid: buying and selling records
It remains to be seen if the Spanish giants will be able to offload the likes of Gareth Bale, Keylor Navas and Dani Ceballos as was the reported wish of the club. Recent comments from those players have suggested that they would prefer to stay and possibly play a more fringe role than they had expected when they arrived.
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But despite a lack of revenue from those stars, there is still likely to be more coming from the departures of Theo Hernández (€20 million), James Rodríguez (€40 million potentially) and Raúl De Tomás (€20 million). These deals, along with the aforementioned Llorente and Kovacic moves, would total 165 million euros and would surpass that of last year when players - one in particular - brought in €130 million, the most in Real Madrid history.
Even in the absence of those soon-to-be-payments, Los Blancos have already taking in more money than in the summers of 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016. It could be argued. of course, that the sales of players such as Sergio Canales (€7.50m), Illarramendi (€15m), Diarra (€m5), Sahin (€5m), and Van der Vaart (€10.5m) were very much in a different era. Forget Anno Domini (AD) and Before Christ (BC) of the Gregorian calendar, footballing transfers are now seen through the Before Neymar and After Neymar timeframe, with a few notable exceptions.
The decline in player profits was preceded by two very effective summers: 2008 (€69.3m) including Robinho to newly Abu Dhabi owned Man City, and 2009 (€88.5m) with Robben heading to Germany. Then, the summers of 2010, 2011 and 2012 combined only just tipped over €50 million.
Cristiano revenue impact
Over the past two summer windows, Madrid took an important step with their sales churn. In 2017, €128.5m was raised with the exits of Morata (66), Danilo (30), the loan of James (13), Mariano (8), Diego Llorente (7), as well as nominal amounts for Burgui and Coentrao's loan. After that, the Cristiano Ronaldo farewell, and the less-headline-grabbing departures of Omar (10), Torró (3.5) and Lienhart (2) saw .
Real Madrid's revenue from player sales per season since 2010
| Year | Revenue from player sales |
| 2018 | 130 million euros |
| 2017 | 128.5 million euros |
| 2016 | 30 million euros |
| 2015 | 15 million euros |
| 2014 | 111 million euros |
| 2013 | 113 million euros |
| 2012 | 27 million euros |
| 2011 | 5.5 million euros |
| 2010 | 10.5 million euros |
With the arrival of nearly 300-million-euros worth of talent this summer, and more likely through the door, it looks like it will be financial record breaking at both ends of the ledger.