Real Madrid no longer sees bitter rivals FC Barcelona as a threat in its transfer market dealings according to MARCA, which cited anonymous sources.
There was a time that the two La Liga giants regularly locked horns when it came to landing the biggest established players in football.
These days, however, “the enemy is no longer” Barca for president Florentino Perez, MARCA reports with the difference between the two clubs from a financial perspective “abysmal”.
It is now viewed as an “unequal fight” whenever a top name young or old becomes available, with the new rivals the likes of state-backed clubs such as Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain plus PremierPINC League behemoths Liverpool and Chelsea.
Barca’s weakened hand is down to its dire financial predicament brought on by overspending on new players with the Neymar money and bumper new contracts for existing squad members in the reign of former president Josep Bartomeu.
PSG paid Barca $241 million (€222 million) for Neymar in 2017 when they triggered the Brazilian’s release clause, but Bartomeu then splashed the cash and more on a trio in Philippe Coutinho, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele who all failed to make an impact in Catalonia and have now been moved on.
Then came the pandemic resulting in revenue temporarily drying up, and Bartomeu’s successor Joan Laporta inherited a club he famously described as being “clinically dead” while over $1 billion in debt.
The Catalans now rely on picking up free agents or paying cut fees for players it feel can make an impact. Or, like Laporta did in 2022, pulling ‘economic levers’ pertaining to the sales of percentages in future income.
Meanwhile in the Spanish capital, Perez has thrust his club into a new Galacticos era kicked off with the $111.8 million (€103 million) signing of Jude Bellingham in 2023 with Kylian Mbappe expected to follow this summer.
Mbappe will arrive as a free agent, but there are few outfits that can pay his considerable signing-on fee and salary with Barca not among them.
Madrid is so comfortable financially that it will not have to sell players to accommodate Mbappe according to AS.
Simultaneously, though, Barca will need two big player sales just to navigate Financial Fair Play limits report the likes of El Nacional.
