When Real Madrid signed Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 2013, the Welshman became the most expensive player of all time. But the Royal team tricked so that Cristiano Ronaldo would initially remain listed as a world record transfer.
101 million euros transferred Real Madrid for Gareth Bale to Tottenham Hotspur. This means he cost seven million euros more than Cristiano Ronaldo did when he transferred from Manchester United to the Spanish record champions in 2009. According to Darren Eales, who was directly involved in the negotiations in 2013, the Bale deal had to be tricked so that CR7 did not lose its status as a supposed world record transfer.
Eales, who was a director at Spurs at the time and is now managing director at Newcastle United, remembers talkSPORT: “That was an interesting case. So we negotiated with Real Madrid, where Ronaldo already played. They wanted to make it so that Ronaldo was still the most expensive player, even if they had to pay more for Bale. There were a lot of discussions about that and They had to do something on their side because they wanted to protect Ronaldo.” Ultimately, Bale moved to Madrid – the first footballer ever to do so for a sum exceeding 100 million euros. When the transfer was announced, the exact sum was not mentioned; media close to Real, such as the Spanish sports newspaper Brand At the time, however, they wrote of “only” 91 million euros.
“In the end we managed it. For us it was just about getting the maximum out of it. It was the world record transfer after all. Everyone at Spurs wanted to keep Gareth. But he wanted to leave and had this opportunity, no one was angry with him. He is a nice guy,” said Eales. Bale was under contract with Real Madrid from 2013 to 2022, after which he moved to Los Angeles, where he ended his career months later.
2023-12-13 17:30:49
#Ronaldo #Real #tricked #Bales #transfer
