Real Madrid presented Gareth Bale at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu today after completing his move to the Spanish capital from Tottenham Spurs.
The Welshman, with a transfer fee record of £85 million, is now the most expensive player in the world. Bale successfully passed his medical before signing a six-year contract with the Spanish giants, where he will link up with Cristiano Ronaldo.
Despite the huge outlay, I wonder if this is a good investment for the club. How will it recoup the cost of the transfer fee? Of course, he was brought in to help the club win a record 10th European Cup title this season, something that has become an obsession for the club in recent years; but is the amount not too much?
Will Real Madrid be able to recoup this fee from Gareth Bale’s in direct sales of replica shirts with his name on, or in media exposure? I don’t think so.
However Florentino Pérez Rodríguez the current president of Real Madrid Football Club seems to think otherwise; he believes that for clubs like Real Madrid, expensive footballers such as Gareth Bale pay for themselves, both on and off the pitch. At the beginning of this summer, he even said “Regarding the figures spoken about Bale, players are neither cheap nor expensive, but an investment. Most expensive players are those that can be classified as an investment because, if they are very good, they produce a return.”
Well when you consider what he has gotten from Real Madrid’s record purchase of Christiano Ronaldo in 2009 for £80 million, he might know what he is talking about. He boasted that he would make the money back in merchandise sales. Indeed he did. The club announced a year later that it had made £90 million, mainly from Ronaldo’s No. 9 jersey and other memorabilia.
Will he strike gold again with Gareth Bale? Guess time will tell….
What do you think?
