They're back! With Real Madrid signing Kaka from AC Milan 2 days ago and then today's news that they signed Mancheseter United star (and my all time favorite player), Christiano Rolando, Los Galacticos are back - EN FUEGO! And what a big mistake it is. First of all, in the middle of European recession, RM offered a then record breaking $92 million for Brazilian superstar Kaka and now the new record of $131 million for the Ronaldo transfer.
The real problem with Real Madrid is that the Los Galacticos strategy didn't work the first time and it's not going to work this time. In a nutshell, Real Madrid overpays for the biggest stars in football (European football - aka soccer, not American football) and brings them to the club to play for them. The theory is that with all of the world's best players playing on 1 team, you can buy your way to winning titles. It should work, but with all things sports, sports theory and sports reality always diverge, with sports reality being the much harsher of the 2. The U.S. equivalent is the New York Yankees. (Another team that overpays for star baseball players and doesn't win the World Series. And got their asses kicked yet again by my beloved Boston Red Soxes at Fenway park last night. 6-5. Eat it New Yorkers!), but I digress....
For Real Madrid, they overpay to get stars, do not end up winning either national or continental titles, the merchandise will not sell like it used to in a recession, TV networks will not be push up their license fees, and it's hard to market a star or a team when everyone on the team is a star. For the players, it can be a career killer. David Beckham effectively ended his European career with his Real Madrid transfer (and Beckham had to come to America to play soccer and be Tom Cruise's friend! Quelle horreur! Now that's a hard fall). Michael Owen was a star player in England for both his team and the national team. He transferred to Real Madrid and his career was dead within a year.
Also, there are already established stars currently playing for Real Madrid. Then you have to re-earn your spot on the team and your standing all over again, in a foreign country, with a very different press and audience.....good luck! Plus the spotlight is on you immediately when you begin to play. One bad move, one bad game and you're massacred in the press. What does that do to your ego? It hurts your career and begins an almost self fulfilling downward spiral. Granted a very rich downward spiral for David Beckham and all the other Galacticos, but still, as a sports player, wouldn't you want to be remembered for your long career? No one remembers you for how much money you made. The results speak for themselves, the Galacticos were never able to win a national or international title.
Also with the all the players, when everyone's a star on the team, egos can get out of control and team spirit goes right out the window. The ego problem is a big one for a sports teams. With most clubs, there are 2 to 3 outstanding players, your stars. The star players on their team do very well for the club and on the pitch (field), but they need their supporting defenders and passers to make them look good. Yes, the team star is great, but they are great because the other players on their current teams make them great. No one player is a star on a football team on their own.
Now with everyone wanting to be a star, you have no one supporting you as a player to make you look good. At Real Madrid, the thinking on the pitch has to be - why pass the ball when I can try to score and be a bigger star than you? Usually, the smartest move is to pass, and to set up a better shot for someone else, and not try it on your own. Ronaldo is good only because he has a short hand with Wayne Rooney and his defenders and teammates of the last 5 years. Ronaldo will not score half as many goals next year as he did this year for Manchester United. And he's one of the leagues top scores with usually 30+ goals per season. I guarantee you next year for Real Madrid, he will just make it into the low teens.
What I like least about Los Galacticos is that money cannot buy you a win, so instead they should try to make the best team, not get all the best sports celebrities. It's like porn, if everyone's in the film is a porn star how do you establish rank if everyone's a star?
As incredible as this blog posting may seem, you read correctly, I did just post my very first sports blog posting with straight porn references. (I know!) But really I did it so I could post shirtless photos of Ronaldo & Beckham.
No comments:
Post a Comment