Madrid - Real Madrid captured the attention of the watching
world with their spectacular presentation of Cristiano Ronaldo, the
most expensive player on Planet Football.
Around 85,000 Real fans packed into the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu
on Monday night to see the Portuguese winger wear the famous white
shirt - number 9, to be precise - for the first time.
Practically all Spanish television channels interrupted their
normal evening news programmes to go live to the Bernabeu for at
least a few minutes - particularly when Ronaldo, close to tears,
thanked the fans for coming.
The attractiveness of the ceremony was increased by the presence
of legendary Portuguese star Eusebio, who hugged and kissed Roanldo
at every possible opportunity.
Never before in the history of the game have so many fans turned
up for the presentation of a new signing, not even when Napoli
unveiled Diego Maradona in 1984.
Never before have so many foreign journalists and reporters come
for a presentation, and never before have the live pictures been
transmitted in so many countries.
The unanimous opinion of the Spanish media on Tuesday is that the
presentation was an overwhelming success.
So far so good then for Perez, the most profligate president in
the history of football.
But now the construction billionaire has a much harder task ahead
of him: to make the Ronaldo deal profitable.
Perez has paid Manchester United around 94 million euros (131.10
million dollars) for Ronaldo, shattering the world transfer record.
In addition, the cheeky winger will be the highest paid player in the
world, earning around 13 million euros per season on a lucrative
six-year contract.
The buy-out clause for Ronaldo, which is required by Spanish law,
has been set at a staggering one billion euros.
On Friday Perez told television channel Cuatro that 'the great
players are always profitable', and pointed out how he turned a
profit from the signing of 'Galactico' stars Luis Figo, Zinedine
Zidane, Ronaldo (the Brazilian version) and David Beckham during his
first spell as Real president, from 2000 to 2006.
In that six-year spell Perez managed to almost triple Real's
income, through improved sponsorship and television deals plus the
mass sale of replica shirts.
His plans are even more ambitious this time. According to the
Spanish media, Perez plans to sell 100,000 Ronaldo shirts (costing
around 85 euros each) worldwide within two weeks - and 500,000 by the
end of the year.
He also plans to 'review' the club's current sponsorship and
television deals, now that he is building a star-studded team with a
massive global impact.
German sportswear giant adidas reportedly pays Real 30 million
euros per year for wearing their gear, on a contract which runs until
2012. Perez is allegedly pushing for that figure to be doubled, but
adidas are resisting.
Ronaldo has a personal deal with Nike, adidas' main rivals.
Adidas spokesman Jan Runau said that 'it is nothing unusual that
there are differences between the sponsor of a team and the sponsor
of a player. But from now on Ronaldo will wear an adidas shirt every
day.'
Perez' second challenge, in addition to making the Ronaldo signing
profitable, is to build a team capable of challenging European
champions Barcelona, who carried all before them last season.
Perez has so far splashed out around 210 million euros in the most
dramatic spending spree ever seen in world football, on Ronaldo,
Kaka, Karim Benzema and Raul Albiol.
According to the Spanish media, he is prepared to spend up to 300
million, and his next targets are Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich,
David Silva of Valencia and Liverpool pair Xabi Alonso and Alvaro
Arbeloa.
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