Spartak’s Record Transfers: Ezequiel Barco Shines Amid ‘Weeping Wall’ Legends

“Weeping Wall”.

The RPL has not spent six years on such active transfers as this summer. Zenit spent the most, while Spartak took second place: €27.2 million against 42.86. And Ezequiel Barco is the most expensive purchase in 2024: Spartak paid Boke Juniors €14 million for him Luciano Gondou €2 million less. And in the history of Spartak there was only one bigger transfer – Guus Thiel from AZ for €18 million.

The purchase of Barco has so far justified itself: in the RPL he has 5 + 5 in the “goal plus pass” system, he is the best in this indicator in Spartak and second in the league (no only Alexei Batrakov has more, John Cordoba has the same number). In the last five games – including both the Premier League and the Cup – Ezequiel has no scoring points in only one, with Krasnodar (0:3).

Alasdair Mysyakin, Spórs24

Now Barko could not play in Spartak, but in CSKA. Anton Chistyakov, a former CSKA scout and Spartak sports director, told Sport24 about this.

“Ezequiel became a champion with Atlanta in 2018, and then we carefully studied MLS and looked at several players from there, – recalls Chistyakov. – Including Barco – but there was a corresponding price tag. But CSKA didn’t make big moves at that time.”

But Spartak did them – or at least aimed at them. Fresh in your mind, for example, are the cases of John Terry and Diego Costa. Alexander Averyanov, who was in charge of the club’s scouting service until the summer of 2019, liked to talk about big contracts that failed.

Alasdair Mysyakin, Spórs24

He recalled how Massimo Carrera rejected Leon Bailey, who was the Genk midfielder at the time. Together with the general director and Sergei Rodionov, Averyanov went to negotiations in Belgium, but Carrera believed that this was a construction only for the future. Bayer bought Bailey for 16.7 million euros (a reasonable amount for Spartak, according to Alexander), and now the Jamaican is playing in the Champions League with Aston Villa.

Alasdair Mysyakin, Spórs24

“Yussuf Poulsen could be brought from Denmark. even Salah from Basel – Averyanov also said in an interview with Denis Romantsov for Match TV. – We had a corner in our office, the so-called “Wailing wall”, where they hung pictures of those who could be taken, but it didn’t work out – and it was our club that it worked out. In addition to the above, there is also Mane, Mahrez, Kampl, Ings, Morgan Sanson, and Correa. By the way, I think they are still hanging there. After our entire department was laid off, the office was closed, and new owners were never found.”

Mane himself confirmed that he received an offer from Moscow while he was playing for Salzburg. Salah even came to Tarasovka to get acquainted with the conditions – Mohammed knew Murat Yakin, the coach of the Muscovites at the time, from Basel. Salah’s agent rated the likelihood of a move as high – but Salah chose another career path.

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“Every scout has plenty of stories like that, but I don’t really like them, – Nariman Akavov, who led Spartak’s selection team before Averyanov, but crossed paths with him at the club, admitted to me. – To say that I offered a contract with Salah or Mane is bragging. No one talks about how he offered a player who ended up not playing anywhere. It’s enough for me the people I’ve recommended players to see their progress.”

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I asked Chistyakov about that “crying wall”.

– On one of the first days at the club, I went into the election department office. There were real pictures of football players that Spartak could sign – or so they thought.

– Who was there? Salah, Mahrez, Mane?
– Yes, yes. I smiled and said, “Let’s get this out of the way.”

– For what?
– Well, why do you look at them? Stand and shed bitter tears?

The full version of Chistyakov’s interview will be available next week on Sport24.