Football transfer fees
The BBC gives us a handy (not sure about the accuracy) chart of world record transfer fees in sterling (note it's slightly different in euros) back to 1905.Ronaldo's, if it happens, is by far the largest, even if you adjust for inflation. Zidane's in 2009 prices is about £57m, Shearer's £21m. Rossi, at £1.75m in 1976, is equivalent to £9.4m today, Cruyff's £922k, £8.3m today. On these figures the first £1m player was Jeppson (£52k) in 1952, but Ferreyra in 1932 (£23k) was only just short at £950k.
Current records are far in advance of anything seen before, even in real terms and even as a % of national GDP. Spain's purchase of Ronaldo for about 70m euros makes it 0.007% of Spanish GDP. Looking at Italian transfers in the 1950s, the record was about 0.001% of GDP, rising in the 1970s to about 0.0023% and by the early 1990s to about 0.0032% of GDP.
Labels: Football
posted by Matthew @ 6/11/2009 12:25:00 PM
Comments: 1
