Madrid (AFP) – The January transfer window is supposedly a market for desperate buyers but Barcelona sit five points clear at the top of La Liga and have made more signings than any other team in the division.
On Monday, it was Kevin-Prince Boateng doing kick-ups at the Camp Nou and three days later came Frenkie de Jong, the 21-year-old Dutch midfielder for whom Barca will pay Ajax 75 million euros ($85 million), with a further 11 million euros due in add-ons.
“In De Jong, we add talent, youth and a player with Barca style,” said president Josep Maria Bartomeu. “He will be a key player in the next few years.”
Boateng and De Jong, who will join in July, follow Jeison Murillo from Valencia, a central defender for the present, and Jean-Clair Todibo from Toulouse, another to mould for the future, who will also arrive in the summer.
– Real spending less –
Barcelona go up against Catalan neighbours Girona on Sunday and a few hours later, less than 70 miles away, Real Madrid play Espanyol.
Madrid’s most expensive player will be Vinicius Junior, the 18-year-old signed for 45 million euros last summer. Gareth Bale, who is injured, is the only one more costly and they signed him six years ago.
Since then, the European champions have spent more than 50 million euros just once, on James Rodriguez, who is now on loan at Bayern Munich and not expected to return.
Barca have smashed that total five times in the same period, twice more than doubling it, to bring in Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele.
Those deals were propped up by the sale of Neymar, which helped the club announce record revenues of 914 million euros for last season. They predict another jump to 960 million this term.
But Real’s finances are also in good shape. They expect to report figures of 752 million euros for 2018-19, with their president Florentino Perez confident his club can be the first to reach a billion.
“The only way to remain independent is to be financially healthy,” Perez said in September. “That is the base of our sporting success.”
Perhaps Madrid’s reduced transfer spending is due to planned improvements to their Santiago Bernabeu home, for which a 575 million euro loan will be taken out. But Perez has insisted it will not impact the team, while Barcelona are also upgrading the Camp Nou, at a cost of 400 million euros.
from World Soccer Talk http://bit.ly/2S4hK0i
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