LaLiga starts weighed down by a rickety market and under Saudi harassment

LaLiga, with the new surname EA Sports, starts this Friday with contained enthusiasm. The economic crisis and financial control have caused what was La Liga de las estrellas to put a stop to millionaire signings and trust the recovery to the explosion of emerging figures and the still unfulfilled desire of Kylian Mbappé to play for Real Madrid. Without Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, the focus of the Spanish competition for a decade, and with the departure of Benzema (last Ballon d'Or), the League is increasingly distancing itself from the Premier, despite the fact that sporting results have not diminished due to to the good performances of Real Madrid, Sevilla and Villarreal.

The new LaLiga show is based on the arrival of the English Bellingham, in Pedri (the most valued Spaniard), the exhibitions of Vinicius and the irruption of emerging figures (Fermín, Lamine Yamal) from a Barcelona financially distressed and that until the last minute is going to suffer to register some of its players, such as Gündogan, Iñigo Martínez, Araujo or Marcos Alonso. Laporta is pending the transfer of Dembélé and part of the sale of Barça Studios to expedite registration. They also have to speed up, among others, Betis, Sevilla, Celta, Getafe, Las Palmas and Osasuna.

The League is the second most valued competition, with 9,000 million, but it only represents half that of the Premier, with 18,000 million, according to Transfermarkt. Behind are Serie A, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and the Saudi Pro League, which has made a spectacular leap in the transfer spending table. In this section, LaLiga occupies the sixth place.

Premier League teams have bought €1.613 million worth of players, followed by Bundesliga clubs with 541 and Italian Serie A with 532. France sums 483 and Arabia, 465. LaLiga remains at 280 million. This represents 7.6% of the total expenditure of the main competitions in the market.

“The money spent is what it is. I would be concerned if the money invested was greater and could not be paid,” warned Javier Tebas last June. To the crisis derived from the Covid, which crushed several of the locomotive clubs in the market, such as Barcelona, Atlético or Valencia, add the fair play conditions that LaLiga imposes on the clubs and that it monitors so exhaustively that the teams spend all of August wondering whether or not they will be able to register their signings. The limit of losses for three years or that the contribution of the maximum shareholders cannot exceed 25% are two of the great differences that weigh down the Spanish clubs before the dominators of the market: the English.

MARKET ENTERTAINER

Among the 10 most expensive signings on the European market, which will remain open until September 1, there is only one LaLiga footballer: Jude Bellingham. Real Madrid paid 103 million euros to Borussia Dortmund for the British midfielder. The biggest outlay was made by Arsenal, with Declan Rice (116.6).

The white club has been the great national animator by also disbursing 20 million for the young Turk Arda Güler. Now it will shake the market again before the loss of Courtois. The rest of the teams have barely exceeded the cost of 10 million, only Sevilla exercising the option for Bade, although some, like Girona, have made the most expensive in their history.

It does not go unnoticed that in the transfer table there is no payment from the current league champion, Barcelona, nor from the clubs that will accompany Real Madrid in the Champions League: Atlético and Real Sociedad.

For the moment, the Barcelona team has only gone to the market to sign Oriol Romeu for five million. Iñigo Martínez and Gündogan (they arrive for free) and their dazzling homegrown players are the new faces for Xavi Hernández. Javi Galán (3.5) and Söyüncü (free) have joined Simeone's group and he recovers good projection loanees: Samu Lino, Camello and Riquelme. He still has to solve Joao Félix's headache. His departure would give him room for maneuver. Nor has Real Sociedad spent, but Sevilla has, exercising the options for Lodi Bade (10 million) and Djibril Sow (10). Villarreal, who will be in the Europa League, has invested part of the sales of Pau Torres (33) and Jackson (37) in Alexander Sorloth (10), something that neither Betis nor Osasuna, the other national representatives in competitions, have done. European.

Real Madrid and Bayern (this Thursday they signed the Englishman Kane for 100 million) are the only teams that manage to compete with the English in the most expensive signings. A ranking dominated by the Premier. In the last places of the Top-10, PSG appears with the South Korean center-back Kim Min-jae and the Uruguayan midfielder Ugarte, both cost 60 million.

It is not only difficult for the clubs in the League to compete with the wallet, they are also losing the condition of a seller's market, as reflected in the flows of purchases and sales in the major leagues. All major competitions tend to be nourished, mainly, by their own environment. With Ligue 1, six operations worth 21.5 million have been closed and they have hardly been caught in Serie A and the Premier. Of the 1,603 million invested by English clubs, only 124.20 have ended up in Spain. Five operations have been carried out for the 10 in Serie A and the nine in the Bundesliga, very marked by the 100 million Manchester City for Gvardiol. The Bundesliga has not left a single euro in the Spanish coffers. The emerging Saudi Pro had not shown interest either until the signing of Barcelona player Kessié for 12.5 million came to fruition. Alex Collado and Benzema left for free. The Arabs have fixed their eyes, above all, on England (226.40 million).