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Summer Transfers 2010
Sheikh Mansour and Florentino Perez rule the players' market
Ozren Podnar
Biggest Transfers 2010 | Biggest All-Time Transfers
Manchester City and Real Madrid go on the offensive in the summer transfer window. Barcelona "gift" Ibrahimovic to Milan while Valencia sell their best players to avoid bankruptcy
Real Madrid and Manchester City have again been the most active buyers on the soccer players' market, but the two clubs changed positions on the big investor ranking as the Spaniards downgraded their spending compared to the summer of 2009.
Madrid purchased six new players, just as in the previous year, but none of them approached the price of Cristiano Ronaldo (94 million euros) or Kaka (65 million euros). This time, the most expensive signing was the Argentinian Angel Di Maria, seized from Benfica for a mere 25 million. Amazingly, the second most costly addition to the roster was the Turko-German Mesut Ozil at 15 million, while the remaining four, including Sami Khedira and Ricardo Carvalho, cost under 12 million each. Almost unworthy of Madrid's standards.
The Spanish champions and Real's historic rivals were even more economical, having signed just three players and spent less than Madrid, even though their chief reinforcement, David Villa from Valencia, ended up as the most expensive player this year at 40 million euros. Two other of Barca's signings were Javier Mascherano from Liverpool and Adriano from Sevilla, but the main story of the summer was the disposing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the insistence of coach Josep Guardiola.
Barcelona entered history as the protagonist of the most ridiculous business affair in soccer, as Ibrahimovic joined AC Milan at a quarter of the price paid just a year before to Internazionale. The controversial Bosnian-Swedish striker was signed by Barcelona for 47 million euros in cash plus the infernal goal poacher Samuel Eto'o, valued at 20 to 40 million (the latter figure is probably closer to the truth).
Just one year later, Ibra was on his way back to San Siro, only this time to AC Milan, for 24 million euros payable on July 1st 2011! Such was Guardiola's animosity towards Ibrahimovic that Barcelona's new boss Sandro Rosell agreed to offload the prolific striker for a ridiculous price with the 10-month delay in payment.
If Barcelona can cushion the financial blow like this with their huge revenues, Valencia are not so lucky. The Bats had to sell seven players to service their nine-digit debt, including the World Cup Winners David Villa to Barcelona, Carlos Marchena to Villarreal and David Silva to Manchester City.
This English club finished as the champion of the transfer window with 150 million euros spent thanks to their owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan from Abu Dhabi, probably the wealthiest owner of a soccer club in the world.
The 39-year-old member of the United Arab Emirates royal family bought City for 260 million euros through his consortium two years ago and went on to invest a further 350 million in his bid to make the Citizens the top European club. The Sheikh has a long way to go, but the realization of his goal only depends on his patience, because his wallet can certainly cope with any other team including Chelsea, Manchester United, Inter, Milan, Real or Barcelona.
Why on earth does the son of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan, the first president of the United Arab Emirates, need Manchester City?
Supposedly the motive is the competition with Dubai, the largest and the wealthiest emirate. Should City conquer the Premiership or even better the Champions League, Sheikh Mansour and his Abu Dhabi will win the struggle of prestige with their neighbours.
Biggest summer transfers 2010
| Player | From | To | Price (in Euros) | |
| 1 | David Villa (Spain) | Valencia | Barcelona | 40 |
| 2 | David Silva (Spain) | Valencia | Man City | 32 |
| 3 | Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast) | Barcelona | Man City | 30 |
| 4 | Mario Balotelli (Italy) | Inter | Man City | 28 |
| 5 | Angel Di Maria (Argentina) | Benfica | Real Madrid | 25 |
| 6 | Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden) | Barcelona | Milan | 24 |
| 7 | Javier Mascherano (Argentina) | Liverpool | Barcelona | 23 |
| 8 | Yoann Gourcuff (France) | Bordeaux | Lyon | 22 |
| 8 | Bruno Alves (Portugal) | Porto | Zenit | 22 |
| 10 | Ramires (Brazil) | Benfica | Chelsea | 21 |
| 11 | Carlos Eduardo (Brazil) | Hoffenheim | Rubin Kazan | 20 |
| 12 | Aleksandar Kolarov (Serbia) | Lazio | Man City | 19 |
| 13 | Pierre Gignac (France) | Toulouse | Marseille | 18 |
| 14 | Edinson Cavani (Uruguay) | Palermo | Napoli | 17 |
| 15 | Diego Ribas (Brazil) | Juventus | Wolfsburg | 15.5 |
| 15 | Leonardo Bonucci (Italy) | Bari | Juventus | 15.5 |
| 17 | Miloš Krasic (Serbia) | CSKA Moscow | Juventus | 15 |
| 17 | Robinho (Brazil) | Man City | Milan | 15 |
| 17 | Mesut Ozil (Germany) | Werder | Real Madrid | 15 |
| 20 | Hernanes (Brazil) | Sao Paulo | Lazio | 13.5 |
Top 12 Biggest Transfers of All Time
| Player | From | To | Price (in Euros) | |
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) | Man U | Real Madrid | 94 |
| 2 | Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden) | Inter | Barcelona | 87* |
| 3 | Zinedine Zidane (France) | Juventus | Real Madrid | 75 |
| 4 | Kaka (Brazil) | Milan | Real Madrid | 65 |
| 5 | Luis Figo (Portugal) | Barcelona | Real Madrid | 61 |
| 6 | Hernan Crespo (Argentina) | Parma | Lazio | 51 |
| 7 | Gianluigi Buffon (Italy) | Parma | Juventus | 46.8 |
| 8 | Christian Vieri (Italy) | Lazio | Inter | 46 |
| 9 | Andrij Shevchenko (Ukraine) | Milan | Chelsea | 45 |
| 9 | Dimitar Berbatov (Bulgaria) | Spurs | Man U | 45 |
| 11 | Rio Ferdinand (England) | Leeds | Man U | 41 |
| 12 | David Villa (Spain) | Valencia | Barcelona | 40 |
* Barcelona paid Inter 47 million euros in cash plus Samuel Eto'o. The official Barca's claim is that Eto'o was valued at 20 million euros, but according to analysts that claim is unrealistic since Eto'o's market value must have approached 40 million euros.
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