Barcelona revival: What Real Madrid president Perez thinks of Camp Nou side's transfer surge
FT Desk
- 12 Aug 2022 10:48 BST
- 3 min read
Barcelona are struggling to register new players like Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha ahead of the new season. Was does the Real Madrid supremo think of it?
Barcelona have dropped more than €160 million on acquiring Lewandowski from Bayern Munich, Raphinha from Leeds and Jules Kounde from Sevilla, while Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie have arrived on free transfers from Chelsea and AC Milan respectively.
But despite activating financial levers that have essentially seen them sell a percentage of future revenues for liquid capital now, Barca are still falling short of La Liga regulations, and may not be able to play any of them against Rayo Vallecano on Saturday.
Great new players ✅
Able to register them for competitive football 😬https://t.co/LHxf1FpomL— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) August 11, 2022
Real Madrid have no such problems, with €100m summer signing from Monaco Aurelien Tchouameni expected to make his La Liga debut against Almeria without issue. What does club president Perez think about what's happening on the other side of the Clasico divide?
Perez: 'Good for world football'
"There are seasons that we all do better or worse," he told Spanish TV station Movistar. "But Barca is one of the most important institutions in the world along with Madrid. They have to return to being what they are and that's good for everyone, for world football."
Perez's sympathy for Barcelona is perhaps not that surprising. On either side of perhaps the biggest derby in the sport, Real and Barca are essentially business partners as well as footballing rivals.
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Real have also not been averse to activating financial levers of their own, famously pulling out of debt in 1998 with the inflated sale of part of their training ground to the Spanish government.
Real and Barca, alongside record Serie A champions Juventus, are also the three clubs who remain actively pursuing the European Super League. Perez announced its launch as chairman in April 2021 before Inter and AC Milan, Atletico Madrid and six English clubs - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur - pulled out.
