As of late I am pretty sure, you must have either read or heard footballers and managers say that the respective move they had made (in regards to clubs) was not about the money.
Just this past month alone, I have come across the phrase “money was not the motivation for the switch” from the likes of Samir Nasri, Leicester City Manager Sven Goran Eriksson, Dutch Midfielder Eljero Elia, a few friends that just switched jobs and most recently Raul Meireles. What really does motivate us to make that switch? Be it jobs, countries, women, etc. Ok, I will stick to Football for now.
Keeping the money factor aside, let’s take a look at one out of the many variables we could talk about. The credibility of the club.
Now, we know that players would literally pay from their own pockets, as Fabregas did, in order to move to big name clubs such as Man Utd, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern (I won’t be including any Italian clubs here as they have been quite horrible as of late). It’s quite understandable as players feel like they have achieved their well-awaited dream, if they move to these clubs. Do they realize that the same move could either tarnish their image or reduce their minutes on the pitch? Real Madrid as a club can be taken as a very good example, because of the high profile players it has attracted in the past years. After the original Galacticos, highly talented players like Michael Owen, Robinho, Arjen Robben, Van der Vaart and Wesley Sneijder have represented the clubs unsuccessfully. All the players mentioned here actually under-performed since their time at previous clubs.
Except for Anelka, Robben and Sneijder, haven’t really seen these players get their pre-Madrid form back yet. Isn’t football about trying to play and perform consistently? Yes, playing in a team like Madrid will enhance your performance, that is if you are on the pitch but what are the chances of making it into the midfield line up of current Madrid or the Manchester City team? Madrid is loaded with superstars like Ozil, Khedira, Xabi Alonso, Kaka, Altintop, Lassana, Di Maria and the latest addition Nuri Sahin (from Borussia). These according to me are all class players especially Nuri Sahin. His performance for Dortmund last year played a huge role in them winning the Bundesliga. What are the chances of him playing consistently with the presence of others around? The same goes for Man City as well. I support the team with all that I have but someone will be disappointed. Milner, De Jong, Nasri, Johnson, Barry, Silva, Toure and Hargreaves. Great for the eye but in terms of sustainability – not so good.
But in the end, who are we to judge or truly understand the motives behind the switch. May be it was for the money or may be it was for the coach they were playing under or may be it was basically for the credibility of the club. Whatever the reason, every year we have the opportunity to see the actual worth of the transfers by the end of the season. At least my man Eto’o came out saying clearly that he was moving to Anzi for the money. Come-on 20 Million Euros per year. 20 Million? I obviously don’t blame Eto’o for accepting the money. For 20 M, I would move to Dagestan and eat a Siberian Yak’s frozen testicles for breakfast, lunch and dinner. His family, grandkids and great grandkids could be well off with that sort of money. However, I blame the prevailing bodies for tolerating that amount to be paid.
