Ahead of Saturday’s Champions League showdown in Cardiff, Goal gets out the calculator and tots up the value of both finalists
STATS
Real Madrid’s Champions League squad is worth over €200 million more than that of their opponents in Saturday’s Champions League final, Juventus.
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While most pundits agree that there is little to choose between the two clubs in a sporting sense, it is clear from the value of their respective panels that los Blancos are operating a different financial level to the Bianconeri.
The reigning champions’ 25-strong squad was assembled at a cost of €638.2 million and features the second and third most expensive players of all time in Gareth Bale (€100.8m) and Cristiano Ronaldo (€94m).
Bale, of course, is unlikely to be fit enough to start in his native Cardiff and is expected to be joined on the bench by €80m man James Rodriguez, underlining the incredible strength in depth available to Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane.
While Juve’s squad is worth ‘only’ €422.03m in terms of overall transfer fees (which, it is worth noting, were calculated by including previous loan fees and bonuses), the Italian champions have a couple of big-money signings of their own.
Indeed, Gonzalo Higuain was signed from Napoli for €90m, while captain Gianluigi Buffon remains the most expensive goalkeeper in history – which is staggering given he arrived in Turin from Parma 16 years ago.
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The Italian’s €53m now looks like a bargain and it is worth pointing out that Juve’s recent resurgence can be attributed to the shrewd work done in the transfer market by CEO Beppe Marotta and sporting director Fabio Paratici.
Juve’s famed ‘BBC’ defence was acquired for a grand total of €23.6m, which is less than Madrid spent on either Danilo or Fabio Coentrao.
Still, it is worth noting that Madrid have made a couple of prudent signings themselves in recent years, most notably Dani Carvajal and Marcelo, both of whom were bought for €6.5m.
Even the relatively small amounts of money spent on the likes of Keylor Navas (€10m), Raphael Varane (€10m), Toni Kroos (€30m), Isco (€30m) and Luka Modric (€35m) represent excellent pieces of business, given what they have contributed to Real’s recent triumphs.
The fact remains that Real have always spent big in pursuit of success and they will be hoping that their colossal outlay on this current crop of superstars will once again pay dividends on Saturday.