Ferran Torres will have the honor (if he is) of being the second most expensive signing he will ever have signed Joan Laporta. The first in the classification of the new term of the president that It started in the month of March. It is also the first for which a transfer has been paid, leaving aside the half million euros that the transfer of Yusuf Demir from Rapid Vienna.
A modest investment for Ferran, for the pace that Barcelona had in recent years until it fell into ruin after chaining several signings of more than one hundred million. Moderate, if you compare the amount (55 million plus 10 in variables) with the projection pointing the Valencian forward, 21 years old and an absolute international. The footballer from City will sign for five seasons.
A one-year fiasco
Laporta’s spending ranking is widely led Zlatan Ibrahimovic, which turned out to be a fiasco. He only lasted one campaign of the five that appeared in his contract. It was not understood with Pep Guardiola and it did not tolerate that Lionel Messi was the reference of that team ahead of him. For Ibrahimovic, who was 29 years old when he signed for Barça – today he is 40 and there he continues, giving war in Milan – Laporta paid 66 million euros.
Tocateja 43 were paid. That operation with Inter Milan consisted of the loan of Aleksander Hleb, valued at 3 million, and the transfer of Samuel Etoo for 20.
Ibrahimovic cost 66 million: 43 million, plus 3 from the loan of Hleb and 20 in which Etoo was valued.
The change was unproductive. Even bad, as much as Ibrahimovic collaborated with 21 goals in 45 games so that Barça won four titles in the 2009-10 campaign: League, Cup and the two Super Cups.
As the transfer to Inter was closed at the end of August, Ibrahimovic was able to play a match of the two in the Super Cup against Sevilla and took the fifth title as a tip. The Swede did not equal the numbers of Etoo from the previous year, top scorer in the League, whose stay at the Camp Nou was closed (also reluctantly) with 36 goals in 52 official matches. Ibrahimovic continues to extend his career and He returned to Milan in 2019, the club that signed him from Barça paying 24 million in 2010.
David Villa cost 40 million that were paid to Valencia in 2010, shortly before the World Cup.
Cheaper replacement
The irruption of Ferran Torres shortened the gap that existed between Ibra and the next one on the list. The replacement for the Swede was David Villa (40 million), signed by Laporta in May 2010, a month before leaving office. Another proven scorer and cheaper. Sandro Rosell sponsored the acquisition, not without expressing his reluctance: “Signing him now would cost twice as much as doing it after the elections & rdquor ;, assured the future winner of the elections.
Rosell clearly beat his ex-friend’s spending ceiling when he signed on Neymar in 2013. He boasted of having invested 17 million, an amount that increased as irregularities were uncovered and the documents passed through the courts, until they were transferred the 100 million barrier.
Alves is back for free. In 2008 he came from Seville. It cost 29.5 million plus 6 in variables, all of which were paid.
Josep Maria Bartomeu settled on the other side of that barrier: he made a warm-up jump with Luis Suárez (81.25 million to Liverpool in 2014) and then crossed the bar easily repeatedly with Ousmane Dembélé (135) in 2017, Philippe Coutinho (140) in 2018 and Antoine Griezmann (135) in 2021.
Managing ruins
Laporta would spend more money if he could to rebuild the team. But he has had to manage the ruin that has left him the manirroto Bartomeu (1,350 million debt), how did you manage the one he inherited from Joan Gaspart in 2003, a master of waste since Luis Figo’s more than 10,000 million was spent in 2000 on the signings of Emmanuel Petit and Marc Overmars.
Ronaldinho turned the virtuous circle in 2003 in exchange for 27 million plus 3 paid to PSG.
With Laporta, one of his most productive signings of the first period has returned. The most productive in the division between the cost and the games played and the titles won. Dani Alves has returned with Laporta, who is already 38 years old. This time for free. Like almost all the additions this summer: Eric Garcia, Sergio Agüero -two ex-teammates of Ferran were early and free- Memphis Depay and Luuk de Jong. Emerson Royal paid 9 million to Betis, and 25 were collected from Tottenham Hotspur before the end of August.
Thierry Henry came to Barça in 2007. Arsenal were awarded 24 million plus one from a friendly.
In 2008 it cost a fortune at that time, especially in the case of a right back: 29.5 million plus 6 in variables that all were paid for the streak of titles that began and the performance of the player, until he placed himself in the second foreigner with the most games played for Barça. After Messi.
Con Ibrahimovic, Chigrinskiy
Ronaldinho, the 2003 Barça emblem, the man who turned the virtuous circle, cost 27 million plus 3 in variables paid to Paris Saint Germain. Thierry Henry It arrived a year later than expected (2007) in exchange for the 24 million plus 1 from a friendly that Arsenal claimed.
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He signed in 2009 as Ibrahimovic. Defender Dmitro Chigrinskiy was a $ 25 million puncture that Shakhtar Donetz pocketed.
With Ibrahimovic came another transfer puncture, expensive and unproductive that lasted only one year: the Ukrainian defender Dmitro Chigrinskiy. Shakhtar Donetz pocketed 25 million, who recovered it for 15. Guardiola wanted to give him a second season to see if he acclimatized and obtained the expected performance. However, Rosell transferred him claiming “lack of liquidity” that summer due to the bad economic situation that Laporta had left.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com