Easy to say: "Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi will never play in Italy". Maybe why our clubs are too much in debt, economically they are no longer up to par with the great ones in Europe, who instead with annual (and net) salaries at seven zeros put their champions in the safe. Relegating our football to an increasingly marginal role on the continental scene amid debts, scandals, and technical crises.
But is all that glitters gold? Absolutely not. Or rather, certainly not in Spain, the country where the two players play almost unanimously considered the best in the world. The Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo plays in Mourinho's Real Madrid (also overpaid), while the Argentine Leo Messi wears the Barcelona blaugrana shirt.
At what prices? Very salty: 10,5 million every 12 months for "Pulga", while Cr7 takes 13 and his coach 14,8. All tax-free, or at least with "reduced" taxes, thanks to a particular law (now increasingly contested) of the Spanish government. But the fun is about to end: Real and Barça are in fact the most indebted companies, with respectively 660 and 548 million of red, in a general context in which Spanish football is "advancing" 5 billion euros, one of which to be given precisely to the State for back taxes, so much so that the Minister of Education and Sport, José Ignacio Wert, has just signed a agreement with La Liga on the basis of which, starting from the next championship, 35% of the TV rights will go to guarantee arrears. For the remaining part, however, the accommodating attitude of the State remains ("There is a widespread feeling - admitted the minister himself - that football has received favorable treatment"), which allows Real, Barça and the others to comply by 2020, starting to pay only from the 2014-2015 season.
And the other 4 billion? Favors of the banks, in the logic of a sick intertwining between football, politics and finance, with the football business to advertise electoral campaigns financed by local savings banks. That's why, after the Bankia case that opened Pandora's box, the free ride is coming to an end. In the Bankia pool (which has just been nationalized has "discovered" a 19 billion hole) there are ten institutions, from the largest and most solid such as BBVA and Santander, to the indebted and lame Cam and Caja Madrid. Right from this last institute Florentino Perez, owner of the blancos, obtained 76,5 million to buy Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka (90 and 67 million) in 2009. The interest rate is excellent: 1,5%, more than the Euribor. In the same summer, Valencia avoided bankruptcy thanks to a maxi loan from Bancaja. Both banks were later merged into Bankia to save them from the bursting of the real estate bubble.
Not to mention the Barcelona, which has recently cashed in again to get financed for the post-Guardiola market, but the banks, faced with the prospect of having to ask Europe for tens of billions to keep the financial system going, have had – at least now – the good sense to give a spade (Milan supporters can therefore breathe a sigh of relief for Thiago Silva). Yes, because while back then it was the Spanish state that put in the necessary 4 billion, now that the money has run out it's up to Europe to intervene. And therefore to us, to top it all off, "pay" the lavish salaries of players who, we are told with a certain (but, at this point, unjustified) attitude of superiority, we will never see play in Italy.
However, there would be another solution: to break even (without even starting to repay debts) it would be necessary to liquidate the players of a third of La Liga or Real Madrid would have to halve the amount of salaries for its champions. We should give the money to the banks anyway, but then Ronaldo and co. they could also come to play in Italy.
