The Ballon d’Or shortlist of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Cristiano Ronaldo proves the link between extreme wealth and talent in football.
It’s no surprise at the names which appear on the Ballon d’Or shortlist for this year’s award with Lionel Messi likely to win the tribute, again. The fact that Barcelona and Real Madrid players dominate the list every single season is no surprise because they are two of the wealthiest clubs in the world despite what any debt may say otherwise.
The reason these clubs dominate the game in the way they do is because they have the finances needed to invest in the club at all levels but particularly from a very young age. They can both afford to pay the best teenagers in the world the best salaries to ensure that no other European club can come in and offer them a bigger contract.
Other leagues have some extremely talented players but the status of these players is very different. For example, Robin Van Persie is considered to be an extremely high profile player at Manchester United but because of the talent at Barcelona and Real Madrid, he would be considered just another player at either of these clubs.
Both clubs have socio-political connections which means they are never going to be in any serious trouble despite what the debts may tell you, the political side of each club means that external influences would never allow anything dangerous to happen and guarantees that Barcelona and Real Madrid retain their pulling power.
The one sided TV deals in La Liga guarantee that these clubs get a massive portion of external revenue which basically allows them to pay players ridiculous wages to ensure that they are not bought by any other team. If these TV deals were re-examined and parity followed, neither club would be able to pay a player £200,000 per week to play for the club.
The TV deals and the socio-political bail outs mean that Barcelona and Real Madrid can continue to spend and spend and spend each season to keep themselves head and shoulders above everyone else. This is different from many clubs in England, France and other parts of Europe who have private investors who own clubs and put their personal money into the side. It is not a guaranteed form of income.
The clubs are slightly different in the respect that Barcelona, seemingly from the outside, spend more money on the infrastructure of their club to bring through talented young players while Real Madrid are more prone to spending money in the transfer market and then keeping those signings in place through big contracts.
The wealth at each club can be directly tied to the talent at each club which is why you will see Barcelona and Real Madrid players on each list for many years to come.
image: © prettyfriendship
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