After a summer transfer window that saw Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo make unexpected moves, the transaction that didn’t happen best illustrates the landscape of European football.
Kylian Mbappe will stay with Paris Saint-Germain this season, and the star French forward might join Real Madrid as a free agent next summer at the age of 23, rather than for a cost that could approach $200 million now.
PSG is one of the few clubs able to weather the epidemic, sheltered by its sovereign riches, after a decade of ownership that leads to the emir of Qatar. The team benefits from UEFA’s Financial Play Fair being in turmoil while it undergoes an update, as the rules were often implemented haphazardly.
PSG may potentially take the risk of extending Mbappe’s contract if he helps the club win the Champions League for the first time in an attack unit that includes Messi and Neymar.
Ultimately, there will be doubts about Madrid’s ability to bankroll Mbappe’s deal. Florentino Prez, the club’s president, has been terribly damaged by the spectacularly ill-judged and short-lived Super League that he presided over. Real Madrid, like others, has been dealing with a season’s worth of revenue loss due to vacant seats.
PSG never joined the mainly closed European breakaway in April, which included a dozen clubs from England, Italy, and Spain. Instead, its Qatari president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, emerged from the ruins with more clout as the head of the European Club Association and now with a team led by Mbappe, Neymar, and Messi that is sure to frighten opponents.
Despite the fact that Al-Khelaifi was instrumental in the Super League’s demise, PSG’s Qatari backing continues to irritate La Liga head Javier Tebas.
“Club states are as dangerous to the football ecosystem as the Super League,” Tebas tweeted early Wednesday. “We were critical of the Super League because it destroys European football and we are just as critical of PSG.”
It’s no surprise that the French club turned down proposals for Mbappe after acquiring one of the best players in history from the Spanish league.
Messi was only on the market because Barcelona, whose debt had swelled to 1.35 billion euros ($1.6 billion), needed to sell players to meet La Liga’s financial standards.
Even as the transfer season was closing, Barcelona lowered its salary cost even more by loaning high-paid Antoine Griezmann to Atletico Madrid in a transaction that could only regain 50 million euros ($59 million) two years after paying 120 million euros ($146.1 million) for the striker.
It’s now evident why Barcelona was willing to outrage the football establishment by leaving the Champions League system in order to cash in on an instant profit worth hundreds of millions of euros from a Super League that never existed. It also explains why, despite the threat of a Champions League ban, Barcelona, Madrid, and Juventus continue to support the proposal detested by UEFA and fans alike.
This was the transfer window that crushed Spain’s and Italy’s elite and, more importantly, reasserted the Premier League’s standing as a destination of choice.
While Messi left Barcelona in a sorrowful and reluctant manner, Ronaldo was the driving force behind his decision to leave Juventus just one match into his fourth season.
The quickness with which the 36-year-old Portugal attacker returned to Old Trafford after 12 years, a decision pushed by former United manager Alex Ferguson, was more surprising than Messi and Ronaldo swapping teams in the same transfer window. Moise Kean, a forward who returned to Turin after failing to make an impact at Everton, was Ronaldo’s replacement at Juventus.
Not only did Serie A lose its top scorer to the Premier League last season, but it also lost its second-most prolific player, Romelu Lukaku, who helped Inter Milan win the title. Chelsea accepted a bid of 115 million euros ($135.7 million) from Inter, which is hampered by the financial woes of its Chinese owner, the Suning conglomerate.
“The players who left Italy were taken by teams that are financially stronger, but they came here to reassert themselves,” Italy coach Roberto Mancini said.
“This means that our league is not so bad. It’s clear that it’s a pity to lose them because young people always improve by watching the champions.
The Italian league’s total financial crisis is made worse by having to stream its games for free in the Middle East after previously earning $500 million over three seasons from beIN Sports, a Qatari broadcaster also managed by PSG’s Al-Khelaifi that did not bid again owing to piracy concerns.
Manchester City remains one of the few clubs capable of matching PSG’s financial clout. Pep Guardiola’s side were able to pay 100 million pounds ($139 million) for winger Jack Grealish last month thanks to funding from Abu Dhabi’s national wealth fund.
However, a deal that did not take place may have defined the Premier League’s transfer window. Because the value of Premier League rights was protected during the pandemic and the striker had three years left on his contract, Tottenham turned down a trade to City worth more than 100 million pounds ($137.3 million).
A fallen power off to a bad start this season was the highest spender during Europe’s summer transfer window.
Arsenal’s spending reached 150 million pounds ($206 million) on Tuesday with the signing of Japan defender Takehiro Tomiyasu. The north London team, which last won the Premier League in 2004, is currently in bottom place, with nil points from three games, barely four months after being regarded a Super League powerhouse.
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