Insane transfer market: excesses of the football elite show Bavaria’s greatest misery

Stars. They have always existed, the individualists as a breakout from the collective, few outstanding geniuses. But personalization has never been more pointed than it is today. Especially since the corona pandemic, a small phalanx has dominated the perception as a fire accelerator. And in the summer of 2021 – although the 180 million deal for Kylian Mbappé does not materialize – we will experience the craziest transfer market of all time.

Lionel Messi from Barcelona to Paris. Cristiano Ronaldo from Juventus to Manchester United. Romelo Lukaku from Inter Milan to Chelsea. Jadon Sancho from Dortmund to United. Sergio Ramos from Real Madrid to Paris. Gianluigi Donnarumma from AC Milan to Paris. Raphael Varane from Real to United. David Alaba from Bayern to Real. Coach Julian Nagelsmann from Leipzig to Bavaria.

Yes, that too.

Football transfer market: New great Corona humility, of course …

Jack Grealish, an ambitious Englishman, not a world star, cost Manchester City the Premier League record price of 118 million euros. Lukaku was transferred to the bazaar for 115 million, Sancho for 85, Ronaldo as a 36-year-old still for 25. His annual salary should be 29 million euros, and that is important: that salary, consultancy fee or success bonuses are always added to the bill have to.

The free transfer Messi earns around 40 million. Net, of course. Erling Haaland’s agent allegedly demanded 50 million from Chelsea. Again: every year. “These are sums that are completely over the subject for me. It has nothing to do with a person and a footballer,” warned Gladbach manager Max Eberl at “Bild”.

And, wait a minute, why Haaland, didn’t Chelsea just bring Lukaku, one of the world’s best attackers? In modern football, purchases are not only based on logic and such casual aspects as sporting value. It’s also about owning in order to own: Stars in the arena.

The crude and sometimes obscene parallel world of football deals with fantasy sums of money and professionals as circus horses, new great corona humility, of course, not tangible and controllable for those who drive this industry: us. And because it’s up to us, the big business consumers, Messi’s PSG jersey was sold out within minutes for 165 euros. This is how it works.

Without the Super League, debt clubs will soon be “dead”

Alaba also left Bavaria on a free transfer. Which flows are moved behind the scenes according to “Spiegel”: 115 million gross in five years, plus 17.7 million cash in hand, 5.2 million for his agent, who (what a coincidence!) Is the same as at Haaland, and 6, 3 million for Alaba papa George.

Is it irony or stringency that Florentino Perez, the Real President, complained a few months ago in touching obscurity, hey guys, honestly, we need the Super League, with the few toads from the old Champions League, “we’re 2024 dead”.

That was a murder week back in April, when twelve renegade super clubs wanted to encapsulate themselves in the super league with super coal. Their overthrow failed, the revolutionaries crawled hunched back into the care of Uefa, which graciously opened its arms for Europe’s football family, a spectacular booze.

At the same time, that went under, the Champions League was inflated by a further 100 games per season from 2024, of course for the benefit of football. It’s just stupid that in 2024, according to Perez’s logic, all super clubs will be dead … Eberl recognized the factual emergency: “These clubs have no other option than to force the Super League – because it is their only chance to survive.”

Messi couldn’t have played for free either

The former “Galactic” from Madrid, galactically keen to buy, had recently held back on the transfer market. Despite Corona sales losses of 300 million euros, a bank loan of 205 million helped for a reasonably stable financial foundation.

Arch-rival FC Barcelona stands for a crazy 1.3 billion (!) In the chalk, officially certified, which is why Messi, the greatest footballer and biggest expense item, ultimately switch had to.

In Spain, player salaries must not exceed 70 percent of revenue, but with Messi it would have been 110 percent, according to Barca President Joan Laporta, without him it would have been 95. The club saint would not have been able to play for free. In France, the 70 percent rule will not apply until 2023.

In this turbulent phase, four clubs are sneaking off: Those football companies called Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea FC and Paris Saint-Germain supported by investors, oligarchs or entire states. A high nobility of turbo-capitalism.

Current financial fair play failed

“One has the impression that the English are marching on on the transfer market as if there had never been Corona,” said ex-Bayern boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge to “Sport Bild” and gave two reasons: “On the one hand, there is three times the TV -Income like in the Bundesliga. On the other hand, there are very wealthy owners in the background who inject more money and may even be able to use Corona in their favor. “

In this context, calls for a regulatory corrective are becoming louder again, and financial fair play fell through in the current structure. Broken down, its stipulation means that a club may have a maximum deficit of 30 million euros within three years – nice theory.

ManCity was banned from the Champions League for violations, then the international sports court (CAS) overturned the verdict, and in the end City reached the final (bankruptcy against Chelsea, closed society). For Rummenigge, this “first-rate acquittal” was a fatal signal as “the worst case”. With Grealish, City has cracked the billion mark since 2016 (transfer only!), The offset minus is 670 million.

Salary cap and “luxury tax” are to come

“We now have Financial Fair Play 2.0,” said Rummenigge recently. “But I emphasize: we need version 3.0, which contains a specific catalog of penalties. That is an absolute necessity.”

According to “Times” there should actually be modifications.

The first part includes a salary cap, which stipulates that clubs can only use a certain part of their income for player salaries; It is rumored that 70 percent is the Spanish model. This upper salary limit should be broken by clubs paying an amount X to Uefa, which in turn redistributes it on the market.

Sounds passable, but it seems to mean that clubs or their owners can invest an infinite amount – provided they are willing to pay “luxury tax” on top of that. Does this system really solve problems? Without reform, insisted Rummenigge, German football would be “left behind internationally”. Especially since, in Eberl’s opinion, the Bundesliga is “just trying to do justice to humility to a certain extent”.

And Bavaria? Just buy the runner-up three pillars away

FC Bayern has long felt the “competitive disadvantage”, as Rummenigge’s successor Oliver Kahn called him. Corona caused a loss of 150 million euros in sales, the Munich “can not pay the sums that others pay,” said board member Hasan Salihamidzic. Top earner Robert Lewandowski should receive 20 to 25 million annual salary – gross.

In Germany, the long-debated 50 + 1 rule, put simply, prevents external donors from taking over power. Defiant, certainly. The cardinal question: still relevant?

Bavaria tries to score points as a whole, club, money, city. A game of gamble in the shark pond. “Be creative differently,” said Salihamidzic about transfer efforts, Jamal Musiala is an example of Bavaria’s (inevitable) philosophy: discovering, developing, and ideally not selling, talent.

Of course, the truth is that Bayern bought the runner-up Leipzig coach (Nagelsmann), captain (Marcel Sabitzer) and defense chief (Dayot Upamecano) away in one summer. Three pillars in one fell swoop. An exclusive Bundesliga phenomenon.

Bavaria threatens to be ousted by excesses of the elite

Nevertheless, the 2020 Champions League winner is at risk of being displaced by the excesses of Europe’s elite. Corona fueled the imbalance.

It was noticeable how urgently Bavaria apostrophized the contract extension with Joshua Kimmich as a “sign both internally and externally”. Kimmich explained his decision as follows: “The basis of the signature was that I see an opportunity here to win titles – also in Europe.”

That will have to be found out. In the absurd 20s of football more than ever.