• Football Calendar LaLiga Ea Sports 2023-2024
  • LaLiga EA Sports Courtois breaks his crusader and could say goodbye to the season

LaLiga, with the new name EA Sports, starts this Friday with the illusion contained. The economic crisis and financial control have caused that the former League of the stars has put a brake on the millionaire signings and trust the recovery to the explosion of emerging figures and the still unconsummated desire of Kylian Mbappé to play in Real Madrid. Without Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, focal points of the Spanish competition for a decade, and with the departure of Benzema (last Ballon d'Or), the League is increasingly distancing itself from the Premier League, despite the fact that sporting results have not decreased due to the good performances of Real Madrid, Sevilla and Villarreal.

The new LaLiga show is based on the arrival of the English Bellingham, in Pedri (the most valued Spaniard), the exhibitions of Vinicius and the irruption of emerging figures (Fermin, Lamine Yamal) of a Barcelona economically distressed and that until the last minute will suffer to register some of its players, such as Gündogan, Iñigo Martínez, Araujo or Marcos Alonso. Laporta is awaiting the transfer of Dembélé and part of the sale of Barça Studios to speed up registrations. They also have to accelerate, among others, Betis, Sevilla, Celta, Getafe, Las Palmas and Osasuna.

La Liga is the second most valued competition, with 9,000 million, but only represents half that of the Premier League, with 18,000 million, according to Transfermarkt. Behind are Serie A, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and the Saudi Pro League, which has made a spectacular jump in the table of spending on signings. In that section, LaLiga occupies the sixth place.

Premier League teams have bought players worth 1,613 million, followed by Bundesliga clubs, with 541, and Italian Serie A, with 532. France has 483 and Arabia, 465. LaLiga remains at 280 million. This represents 7.6% of the total expenditure of the main competitions in the market.

"The money spent is what it is. I would worry that the money invested was greater and could not be paid, "warned Javier Tebas last June. To the crisis derived from the Covid, which crushed several of the locomotive clubs of the market, such as Barcelona, Atlético or Valencia, are added the conditions of fair play that LaLiga imposes on the clubs and that monitors so exhaustively that the teams spend all August with the doubt of whether or not they will be able to register their signings. The limit of losses for three years or that the contribution of the maximum shareholders can not exceed 25% are two of the great differences that weigh down the Spanish clubs before the dominators of the market: the English.

MARKET ENTERTAINER

Among the 10 most expensive signings in the European market, which will remain open until September 1, there is only one LaLiga player: Jude Bellingham. For the British midfielder, Real Madrid paid 103 million euros to Borussia Dortmund. The largest outlay was made by Arsenal, with Declan Rice (116.6).

The white club has been the great national entertainer by also disbursing 20 million for the young Turkish Arda Güler. Now he will shake the market again before the loss of Courtois. The rest of the teams have barely exceeded the expenditure of 10 million, only Sevilla exercising the option for Bade, although some, such as Girona, have made the most expensive in their history.

It does not go unnoticed that in the transfer table there is no payment from the current league champion, Barcelona, or the clubs that will accompany Real Madrid in the Champions League: Atlético and Real Sociedad.

At the moment, the Barça team has only gone to the market to sign Oriol Romeu for five million. Iñigo Martínez and Gündogan (they arrive for free) and their dazzling youth players are the new faces for Xavi Hernández. Simeone's group has been joined by Javi Galán (3.5) and Söyüncü (free) and recovers loaned of good projection: Samu Lino, Camello and Riquelme. Joao Felix's headache has yet to be resolved. His departure would give him room for manoeuvre. Neither has Real Sociedad, but Sevilla, exercising the options for Lodi Bade (10 million) and Djibril Sow (10). Villarreal, who will be in the Europa League, have invested part of the sales of Pau Torres (33) and Jackson (37) in Alexander Sorloth (10), something that neither Betis nor Osasuna, the other national representatives in European competitions, have done.

Real Madrid and Bayern (this Thursday signed the English Kane for 100 million) are the only teams that manage to compete with the English in the most expensive signings. A ranking dominated by the Premier League. In the last places of the Top-10 looms the PSG with the South Korean center Kim Min-jae and the Uruguayan midfielder Ugarte, both cost 60 million.

The clubs of the League not only find it difficult to compete with the wallet, they are also losing the status of selling market, as reflected in the flows of purchase and sale in the big leagues. All major competitions tend to be nourished, mainly, by their own environment. With Ligue 1, six operations worth 21.5 million have been closed and hardly any fish have been caught in Serie A and the Premier League. Of the 1,603 million invested by English clubs, only 124.20 have ended up in Spain. Five operations have been made for the 10 of Serie A and the nine of the Bundesliga, very marked by the 100 million of Manchester City for Gvardiol. The same goes for Ligue 1, which has been nourished more in Portugal and Germany, and with Seria A that, despite not having any Spanish coach, something that always helps the flow, has taken players paying 80 million euros (El Bilal, Chukwueze and Yunus Musah). The Bundesliga has not left a single euro in the Spanish coffers. The emerging Saudi Pro had not shown interest until the signing of Barcelona player Kessié for 12.5 million came to fruition. Alex Collado and Benzema left for free. The Arabs have set their eyes, above all, on England (226.40 million).

  • Javier Tebas
  • Karim Benzema
  • Leo Messi
  • Graphics