Should the SV Werder Bremen bring in the big money in a transfer: wing racer Milot Rashica. (Matthias Balk / dpa)
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The problems of professional football as a result of the Corona crisis are showing up to a terrifying extent. In Spain the newspaper “El Mundo” published the contract of superstar Lionel Messi: According to this, the player can earn more than 555 million euros at FC Barcelona within four years. After deducting taxes, which Messi has had various problems paying in the past, he has more than 210,000 euros net. And that every day.
While the lawyers are discussing whether these contract details could be made public, the supporters of FC Barcelona are concerned with another question: How should the club continue to pay this salary? The revenue losses caused by the pandemic have also hit the Spanish industry giant with great force. It was recently leaked that FC Barcelona is now in a financial distress of historic proportions with 1.17 billion euros in debt. The club management did not deny that.
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-Werder has to be patient with transfer income
The last day of the transfer phase in winter is over and now it’s definitely clear: Rashica stays. There were inquiries, but the offer wasn’t right …
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One can find Messi’s employment contract completely insane. The problem here is not the player, but the system of professional football. Messi received this contract before the pandemic, when such inconceivable sums were accepted without big questions. In a self-accelerating cycle of madness, very good footballers first cost 100 million euros and a short time later 200 million euros. There was no shortage of buyers, although salaries and consultancy fees also exploded in the fat years before the crisis.
In the wake of this development, SV Werder also operated in Bremen. It was less than two years ago that Werder hoped for a club-internal record fee of more than 35 million euros for the sale of striker Milot Rashica. The market gave it away. At that time, the more than ten million euro transfer fee that Werder agreed to buy the Berlin substitute Davie Selke did not seem a problem. But as soon as Corona spread, the cycle of really big money in football came to a standstill.
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Transfer phase until the end of January
-Werder professional Eggestein rules out winter change
Werder urgently needs money in the crisis, basically nobody is unsaleable. The second most valuable player, Maximilian Eggestein, closes a move in winter …
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From today’s perspective, it was a mistake that Werder deliberately refrained from selling players in the summer of 2019 and preferred to rely on future transfer income in order to afford a team that should finally play internationally again and thus generate even larger sums. The European Cup was missed, and prices for football players have fallen dramatically, as the example of Rashica shows: Even at the beginning of the pandemic, his dream club RB Leipzig did not want to pay 25 million euros, a few months later Leverkusen was 19 million too much for this player. And there was no club on the winter transfer market that had just closed that would have paid 15 million. Werder urgently needs the money in order not to have to take out more loans to secure liquidity. Because the well-endowed player contracts from pre-Corona times must also be fulfilled in Bremen, the wage waiver is marginal.
If there is no buyer for Rashica again in the summer, the player could go for zero euros a year later. Then his contract ends. Werder’s dilemma: apart from Rashica, too many players were brought in for whom there is no market. You are too old, injured too often or not as good as Werder thinks. The receipt: missing transfer income. It will take a while for coach Florian Kohfeldt to develop relevant values in this squad that reach Rashica dimensions. Werder bet on the future. And gained nothing in the process.
The changed transfer market has consequences: In the lower segment, where Werder moves, the clubs that are doing excellent scouting can get through the crisis better. Discovering talent, developing it and selling it reasonably well – that should be the business model for the next few years. But can Werder do that? The case of Tahith Chong, who, contrary to in-house scouting expertise, had no Bundesliga level and disappeared after six months, leaves room for doubt. If they are confirmed, Werder could still be painfully overtaken by the sins of the past.
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Zetterer with a clear message
-“I want to go to the Werder goal”
After his loan, Michael Zetterer is back at Werder – and the number two behind Jiri Pavlenka. But that’s not enough for the 25-year-old, he would soon like to …
-Werder has to be patient with transfer income
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