As a Yankee fan, I find it comforting to know there’s at least one sport franchise making them look like a softball team sponsored by a local tanning parlor. When Florentino Perez became the president of Spain’s Real Madrid football club, he vowed to restore their glory days. Real Madrid has been the most successful team in the world and boasted many of its greatest players, such as Zinedine Zidane (you know, the head-butter). Recent years have been less glamorous though and with archrival Barcelona owning the world’s top player (Lionel Messi) and having completed the most successful season in Spanish history, Perez faced a disillusioned fan base and a towering challenge.

Luckily, he had a plan: he would spend insane amounts of money. (Clever, isn’t it?)

While Barcelona may still have the planet’s best player, Perez acquired arguably its second and third finest by shelling out $92 million for AC Milan’s Kaka (in Brazil it means a term of endearment for “Ricardo”, not “poop”) and $131 million for Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

In a three-day period.

And that’s just for transfer fees, meaning he spent $223 million for two guys — you need 11 on the field — not including their actual salaries.

Even more so than American sports, soccer faces the problem that teams with money win titles and teams without seek moral victories. Countries rarely have more than four franchises capable of competing at the peak level, and every five years or so that number shrinks. But never has there been anything like Real Madrid under Perez. He looked at Man U (England’s most successful team) and Milan (Italy’s most successful, that happens to be owned by the Italian Prime Minister) and said, “Gimme.”

And they did. (Even the Yankees have never been able to announce, “Hey St. Louis Cardinals, your precious Pujols is ours now!” and then fork over a blank check.)

The only downside to this approach is that soccer is still played with one ball, which Kaka and Ronaldo may discover they don’t like sharing. If so, Real Madrid will be the team that spent $223 million for the rights to two players in three days… and still sucks. It would be enough of a blow that they might have to resort to something desperate, like acquiring young players at reasonable prices and patiently molding them into a team (if you could imagine such a thing).

Then again, it might work. Experts have estimated Kaka and Ronaldo will increase Real Madrid revenue by up to $175 million a year, which doesn’t include the loot from all the potential titles.  If that happens, Madrid will be firmly in the black, Perez will be hailed as a Messiah, and across the Atlantic the Steinbrenner kids may finally resolve to spend some real money.

 

Man of the Moment appears each Wednesday.

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