You could say world football has been hit by a Bale force. Welshman Gareth Frank Bale transferred from Tottenham Hotspurs, a team in the English Premier League, to Real Madrid CF which plays in the Spanish La Liga for a world-record fee of $131 million. In Indian currency, the figure looks even more awesome: Rs 878 crore. And you wonder, so much money to own the rights to the footballing skills of a mere human being? The transfer seems to indicate that Real Madrid President Florentino Perez puts more stock by Bale than his team's Cristiano Ronaldo, considered one of football's uber supreme duo with FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi. In fact, Bale put into shade the world-record price Real Madrid paid to yank Ronaldo from Manchester United in 2009.
How does one quantify the asset that an athlete represents to a sports club? Do we go by the transfer fee, or prehaps the $144 million that Real Madrid had Ronaldo's legs insured for (even cricketer Merv Hughes had his luxuriant moustache insured for Australian $370,000, but that's another story)? Does the highest ever exchange of money between two clubs for a player indicate that Bale is the best man shod in football boots out there?
First, of course, the transfer does not mean that Bale will get $131 million. The 24-year-old only gets $465,000 a week (well, 'only' because it's in the context of a much bigger sum, otherwise that's more than what US President Barack Obama gets in a year). And to put his salary in its true perspective, it will be less than what Real Madrid will pay Ronaldo in the post-Bale scenario. Bale is amazingly fast on his feet, often leaving the rival defence leaden-footed in the scoring area, he is strong and aggressive and his chimpanzee grin, curiously, draws eyeballs, even in the United States.
As a footballer, therefore, Bale ticks all the right boxes. But for all his amazing streak at Spurs, Bale is not a scorer in the mould of Messi or Ronaldo. Last season, the Wehlsman caught the eye of big clubs all over the world when he scored 26 goals in the 44 games he played for Spurs in all competitions. Compare that with the 60 in 50 matches that Messi scored for Barcelona or the 55 that Ronaldo netted in 55 games for Real. What the deuce!
Yet Real was willing to break its vault to bring Bale to Madrid. It isn't as if Real hopes Bale will sell more club shirts and merchandise (but don't underestimate player power in this department - Ronaldo is reported to have sold 1.2 million Real shirts with his name emblazoned on them within a year of his joining the club in 2009, effectively helping his employers to recoup a major portion of their then world-record investment in him). But to those who understand the economics of football, this may not be such a conundrum at all.
Real Madrid has always been one of the top brands in football, its valuation computed at $2.6 billion by Forbes in April 2013 (rivals Barcelona and Manchester United are valued above $3 billion). Such transfers as Bale's are, therefore, exercises in brand consolidation. The buzz created by untopped transfer fees helps sustain the club's name among the elite. That's why Real logged the highest transfers of their time for Ronaldo, Ricardo Kaka, Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo.
Also, unlike in England, football clubs in Spain negotiate their own television rights. To maximise their revenue from pay TV, clubs like Barcelona and Real calculate on ensuring high viewerships by catching the attention of people. This is done as much by inducting great footballers as by generating a storm around a transfer. The lanky fellow from Cardiff is, so to say, a beneficiary of this marketing strategy.
