Football world gone bonkers, so bring on Rio
Usain Bolt has to bust a proverbial gut just to make the same amount of money as a scheming football agent.
|||Football world gone bonkers, so bring on Rio
Johannesburg – Football went mad a long time ago, but just in case some of us had forgotten, the Paul Pogba transfer from Juventus to Manchester United has provided a timely reminder.
The numbers are astonishing, but we now live in a world where Raheem Sterling cost £50 million (R919m), which was several times more than the entire Iceland squad that booted England out of the 2016 European Championship was valued at. Figure that one out.
But perhaps more ridiculous than the world record transfer fee is that the biggest stumbling block in the entire deal has been the small matter of the agent’s cut.
Mino Raiola, the unapologetic puppeteer whose fingers are wedged firmly in the pies of Messrs Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Mario Balotelli, to name but a few of his prized clients, is adamant he deserves the princely sum of £20m for his exertions. Where the money comes from, he couldn’t care less.
But the deal is not done until his cut is cleared, and then he can move on to the next deal. His client list includes some of the biggest egos the game has seen, but it now appears quite likely that they will pale into insignificance in the company of Raiola, a self-anointed “super-agent”.
Twenty-million sterling is the kind of money that used to fetch a decent striker not that long ago. In fact, if you scratch around Europe’s lesser leagues, that kind of money can net clubs a poacher who can get 20 to 30 league goals in a season.
Suddenly it has been reduced to a mere commission, a small invoice for the elaborate con of talking up a defensive midfielder all season, to the point that one of the world’s biggest football clubs thought it was reasonable to entertain these lottery figures.
Twenty million pounds is what most footballers would happily earn in a career spanning at least 10 years, and they would have dedicated at least another five years in development, too.
Raiola, meanwhile, has the sheer cheek to demand it for his arduous task of convincing Pogba to quadruple his wages and live with the pressure of being the world’s most expensive player.
A fool and his money are soon parted, they say, and United’s brain-fart is confirmed by the fact that they let the self-same player go for nothing, just a few years ago.
I am eternally grateful to be heading to the Olympics, where the only currency that counts – for a few precious weeks, at least – is your place on the podium.
There is no prize money and there are no cuts going to greedy agents who thrive on overselling and undercutting anything with deep pockets.
For a few weeks, sport will be purely about bringing honour home and having a good time with mates while doing it.
There will be full houses for events as unassuming as archery and race walking, and the victors in those sporting events will go back home as heroes.
To put the madness of football’s monopoly currency into the most startling context, consider the fastest man the world has known, Usain Bolt.
For all his feats, his records and sheer magnetism, it takes Bolt a full year of commercial commitments to earn £20m and a lot of that moolah is dependent on his winning as regularly as he does.
Yep, Bolt has to bust a proverbial gut just to make the same amount of money as a scheming football agent who probably can’t remember the last time he ran for anything.
The football world has gone well and truly bonkers. Bring on Rio and a hearty dose of perspective.
– The Sunday Independent