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The "mercato" of European football and its vertiginous contracts

The summer "mercato" of European football is over since last night midnight. This year again the transfer of players has given rise to vertiginous contracts amounting to tens, even hundreds of millions of euros.

The absolute record held by the PSG for the purchase of Neymar, 222 million euros, remains in force but the transfer window continues to grow in value. The biggest buyers, the English and the Spaniards, spent even more than last year. Since 2004, the amount of the largest contract has been multiplied by fifteen. Inflation that has nothing to do with the sport according to one of the best players in Europe, the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo. According to him, " any player can today be transferred for 100 million euros, even without having done anything. "

What makes prices go up ?

What counts now as much, if not more than the sporting potential, is the commercial potential of the players. When a Ronaldo or a Neymar make a post evoking a product they like, it is the equivalent of an advertising space worth 500,000 euros to 1.5 million euros said the consultant Vincent Chaudel, founder of the sports business observatory. " These top players have become great connectors, " he continues, highly sought after by clubs. But this only concerns the cream of the team. The market has become very polarized stresses Vincent Chaudel, with on one side the mega contracts that make a sensation and those that we speak very little, the players worth a few million euros. As indispensable as the stars on the field, eleven players are always needed to form a team, but sometimes difficult to transfer because they lack this commercial attraction, and therefore less profitable in the new football economy.

The end of quotas limiting the number of foreign players triggered this frenzy ?

This is indeed from 1995 and the Bosman decision that the market is racing; the globalization of football is under way. The money galore available to English clubs bought by multimillion investors has also boosted the market. It is the logic " tell me how much money you have " that becomes the price maker. The flight of TV rights and now internet falling into the purse of clubs also contributes to this vertiginous rise.

How do the weaker clubs resist ?

By becoming salesmen of the young talents they have detected. We sell today very expensive players still young, with a track record still limited. This is what clubs in small countries, the Portuguese or the Dutch do. But also some French clubs. This is called player trading . The Monaco club is an expert. A step without risk, without result, the rating of players suffers and when we are eliminated from the European Championship, which happened last season, we lose a showcase to expose its products. Ajax Amsterdam has developed a more artisanal logic: the club trains players it sells to the highest bidder. This year he has financed his budget by selling two footballers for a total of 150 million euros.

What is the limit of this market ?

The purchasing power of clubs. This is what the show Neymar has shown this year. Barça, which has a record budget, finally gave up buying the Brazilian PSG. He has already borrowed to offer himself Antoine Griezman, difficult to go beyond. The transfer window still has a good margin of progression in value with two turbos ready to feed the machine according to Vincent Chaudel: the Gafa who are now interested in sports broadcasting rights, and the Chinese more and more fans of football, here are what to multiply the prices practiced on the market.

IN SHORT

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