A pair of antithesis players who seemed impossible to play together became a reality in the summer of 2021 thanks to the patience of free transfers. Sergio Ramos Y Leo Messi terminated their contract with real Madrid Y Barcelonarespectively, and were acquired by PSG at zero cost, only negotiating their salaries and bonuses, but without the French team costing them a single euro in terms of transfer.
The mechanics of free transfers is to wait for the end of a player’s contract with his previous club and approach them with an attractive figure in salary and bonuses, saving millions of euros in transfer passes. The PSG He showed the intelligence of his directors to achieve these negotiations in 2021 not only with Ramos and Messi, but also with figures such as Gianluigi Donnarumma Y Giorginio Wijnaldum.
“The fact that a free player can negotiate with a club is good and bad, but the main beneficiary is the new team because they don’t have to pay a token, since that would directly generate money that they have to pay out and Now they only pay the salary. So, instead of the team paying 50 million euros for a player, the bonus or signing ends up being five or 10 million,” explains Rob García, FIFA-endorsed player agent.
This summer of 2022 a new panorama opens with stars who end their contract on June 30, among whom the French stand out as the most valuable Paul Pogba (55 million euros), the Ivorian Franck Kessie (45) and the Argentine paulo dybala (40), coming from Manchester United, AC Milan and Juventus, respectively.
By having the status of free players, that is, without a contract, termination clauses are also avoided, which are the last locks that teams put to shield their stars or promises, since it is an extra amount that must be paid separately from the transfer value.
Barcelona learned that after Messi left for PSG in 2021. With the Argentine they could not renew the contract and he went to the Parisian team at zero cost; For this reason, their rising star, the 18-year-old midfielder, Pedri, was assigned a termination clause of 1,000 million euros in what his contract ends until 2026, so if any club wants to get his services before that year, he will have to pay about 1,100 million, including the value of his letter.
—How much do clubs benefit from this type of transfer?
“Quite a lot, because they avoid having such large expenses, based on the fact that each team has to draw up an annual budget of income, expenses, etc. and that budget goes directly to its confederation to be approved and that there is not a considerable deficit and they comply with the rules of the game (…) A team like Barcelona, at the time, took Sergio Agüero for free and saved between 20 and 25 million euros. Currently they want (Robert) Lewandowski and Bayern put their record at about 50 million, so if he comes free you avoid those 50 million and pay five. Those benefits basically come from the clubs’ portfolios.”
The Top 10 most expensive players who remain free this June 30 range between 20 and 55 million euros, which will be the amount that his new club saves in the event that the one who still retains his rights does not achieve a contract renewal .
In the first six days of June, six free transfers were made with an accumulated value of 144 million euros, where the two most expensive players are the German defenders Anthony Rudiger (which happened from Chelsea to Real Madrid) and Niklas Sule (from Bayern Munich to Borussia Dortmund), since each one has a value of 35 million euros in its letter.
The benefit is to bring free players at a good time, that age does not affect their performance and that they can still be attractive for the club’s merchandising. Among those who met those requirements last year is Austrian defender David Alaba, who started for Real Madrid and won both The league as the Champions League in the gap left by Sergio Ramos.
“When the player is transferred from one team to another, percentages vary. An example is that if the player was transferred for 50 million euros, there is a rule stipulated by FIFA, which depends on each league, but it is between 5, 10 or even 12% of that figure that must necessarily go to the player. , then of the 50 million that the team receives, the one that sells, has to give 10% to the player, 5 or 10% to the agent and obviously those 50 million are reduced, instead when the player goes free there is not that intermediary team”, details the specialist.
Other cases are focused on leaving their clubs this summer, before ending their contracts in December or the following June, to allow the current owners of their card to receive a figure for the transfer value. In this situation is the Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, whose relationship with Bayern Munich expires until June 2023, but who has assured that his cycle with that team “has already ended.”
If a club wanted to sign Lewandowski this summer, they would have to pay the nearly 50 million euros that his letter is worth, or wait until the next transfer period of 2023 to take him free, as happened with Messi when he left Barcelona after months renewal attempts that were not consolidated.
In addition to Pogba (world champion with France in 2018), Kessie (Italian champion in 2022) and Dybala (Copa América champion with Argentina in 2021), other strong cards that are free this summer are the Danish defender Andreas Christensen, from Chelsea; the french attacker Ousmane Dembele, From Barcelona; and the Italian center forward Andrea Belottifrom Torino, all with a card value of more than 25 million euros.
“Clubs do not always try to retain their players, that is a great job that sports directors have to do, because I would not like to spend 100 million euros for a footballer if at the end of the five-year contract he goes free, then they have to do the work a year or two before to renew it and try to sell it at a good price”.