I really don't understand all the hassle about Ronaldo's transfer to Madrid. Let's have a short look at some data: I started with all existing data on the most expensive soccer transfers (starting around 1900), corrected the amounts for inflation over the years, and plotted a small graph. The exponential fit is almost stunning. And maybe even more crazy: the most expensive soccer player will (if the trend continues) top 1 Billion pounds somewhere around 2040-2050!
The yearly 8% (real) increase in price is not so crazy too. Soccer is getting increasingly popular and revenues are obtained from fans all over the world these days. I wonder if this increase is going to last. We'll see in the coming years....
Today over lunch I had a discussion with my
friends regarding the best goal keeper of all time and currently. Since the
transfer rumors seem to be a bit quiet for now after the big bang and since I
am not that interested in seeing South Africa vs Iraq
playing (no offense), this was a good topic for our lunch. (especially since
the food was not great)
As a Bayern fan and neutral observer, the
all time question is easily solved: It can only be Oliver Kahn. Now there
might be people who will argue that it was Sepp Maier, Lev Yashin or Dino Zoff. Out of those I
only saw Dino Zoff play and
since I was too young to remember, I can only vote for Kahn.
Oliver Kahn was the leading figure at Bayern in the last ten years. He was
constantly playing on the highest level, made almost no mistakes and saved the
impossible balls. Because of his grim look, strikers were afraid to come close
to him and maybe rightly so. It was because of Kahn that Germany made it with a really
bad team into the World Cup final of 2002 and it was because of him that Bayern
won the Champions League in 2001. Kahn had only two mediocre years and that was
in 2005 and 2006 when he started to date a 18 year old. That is never good for
your performance. If Kahn would have been a striker and not a goalkeeper
hw would easily have broken Cristiano Ronaldo's
record for being the most expensive player.
My friends obviously disagreed, but only
because a.) they like to disagree with me on all football related topics b.)
nobody besides Bayern fans likes Kahn and c.) they have no idea about football.
The question regarding the current best
goalkeeper is a more tricky one. Two years ago I would have said Gianluigi Buffon from
Juventus Turin. He had an
amazing World Cup and was also the best Italian player during the Euro 2008. I
think he is still good but he is outshined by two other goalkeepers.
Interestingly enough they both play for teams that I can't stand, but still one
needs to acknowledge their performances.
The first is Edwin van der Saar. Van der
Saar has always been a good goalkeeper, but in his last years he became an
excellent one. He makes almost no mistakes and sometimes even manages to save
balls that are impossible to save. He is getting better the older he gets and I
am really impressed with him and his performance although he is a Manchester United
player.
The second is Iker Casillas. Not only
is Casillas playing for Real
Madrid, a team that I cannot stand since I am a Barcelona fan. Casillas is
also Spanish, a country that has not a great goalkeeper history. Remember Andoni Zubizarreta
? He was one of the reasons Spain
could never win anything. Now Casillas made a lot of easy mistakes when he was
younger, but he is getting better and better. He is extremely fast and is
saving some goals that I believe are for sure in.
Although he received 6 against arch rival Barcelona, he is for
me currently the best keeper.
So Kaka has done the decent thing by Milan. Thankfully he turned down Man City and has actually joined a club with great history & one of the biggest teams in world football. But at £50-odd million he also represents a massive jump back in time by Madrid. The re-election of Perez as President comes after rivals Barcelona secured a historic treble in the 2009/10 season.
This could cause a massive shock-wave throughout European football if it continues. Milan now have a bundle of cash in their pocket and will be looking to improve, Chelsea and Man City are itching to get their Oil money out. If Real also bag Ronaldo then there will be a big swell across the big teams land grabbing the talent that is out there. And this causes some interesting thoughts as brands look to activate endorsement deals.
Kaka follows David Beckham's example of sticking to Adidas Teams (AC Milan - Real Madrid), which is probably a good thing as he, alongside Messi is their leading light to talk about in World Cup year. I guess I would be a bit gutted if I was Mr Sony and Fallon and just put out a massive campaign, which was likely to be scheduled to grow, with Kaka in a Milan kit nice creative treatment, but now very dated. ...oh the commercial dangers of the transfer window.
As more and more brands take up independant sponsorship deals with key talent (Castrol & Ronaldo, [Insert Brand} & Beckham), more and more issues develop on creative planning and the impact that a big cheque book can have. I am certain this is of no concern to Mr Perez, but anyone with top talent involved in their activation planning might want to check on how a white kit would look in the scamps...
