Henry deal sets European transfer market in motion

By Duncan Shaw Jun 23, 2007, 14:14 GMT

Madrid - Thierry Henry's move from Arsenal to Barcelona looks likely to set the European football transfer market into frenzied motion.

It is the first big deal of the European summer and could set off a whole series of other big transfers.

The European transfer market normally makes a slow start in June, either because a major tournament is being played - every two years there is either the World Cup finals or the European Championship finals - or because the clubs, like poker players, are reluctant to be the first to make a massive bid.

But once one of the players - in this case Barcelona - throws big money down on the table, then the bids start to come in thick and fast from all directions.

On Friday, Barca agreed to pay Arsenal around 24 million euros (32.2 million dollars) for Henry, who is due to be presented to the Catalan media - providing the medical checks go well, which is not a foregone conclsion in Henry's case - on Monday or Tuesday.

Henry will wear the same 14 shirt that he wore with such distinction at Arsenal for eight years, the number worn by former Barca idol Johan Cruyff when playing for Holland.

Henry will sign a four-year contract with Barca and will be paid around six million euros per season.

The man who negotiated the Henry deal for Barcelona was Ferran Soriano, vice-president with responsibilty for economic afairs.

Possibly anticpating that a fee of 24 million for a player who will be 30 in August and has a recent injury record will raise eyebrows, Soriano told the British RAC-1 radio that 'there is a certain inflation in transfers compared to last year.'

He justified his claim by pointing out that Bayern Munich had paid 25 million euros for Franck Ribery and Manchester United 50 million for teenagers Nani and Anderson.

Soriano told RAC-1 that Barca's next targets were Monaco midfielder Yaya Toure and Roma defender Cristian Chivu.

He said that Lyon were possibly asking too much for left-back Eric Abidal and that Barca were not interested in Villarreal's Diego Forlan.

With regard to sales to pay for the Henry purchase, Soriano claimed that neither Samuel Eto'o nor Ronaldiho nor Deco were up for sale, tough the latter has been identified by the Catalan media as possibly a man on the way out.

The effects of the Henry deal will be seen throughout Europe in the next few weeks.

Arsenal now have money to spend, and are interested in Ajax Amsterdam youngster Ryan Babel, among others.

For reasons of domestic pride and prestige, Real Madrid will now want to pull off a few transfer coups of their own.

Real president Ramon Calderon remains obsessed with AC Milan's Kaka (with a world record 80 million euros mentioned), though he might also be interested in Ricardo Oliveira - according to Marca on Saturday - bought expensively by Milan from Spain's Real Betis a year ago.

Cesc Fabregas and Arjen Robben are still on the wishlist of Calderon, who also needs to replace the departed Roberto Carlos and David Beckham.

So far Real have only signed germany defender Christoph Metzelder, who had finished his contract at Borussia Dortmund.

The most expensive deal of the whole European summer could well be the sale of Fernando Torres by Atletico Madrid.

Torres is bored with Atleti's midtable mediocrity and lack of ambition, and is less than thrilled at the prospect of playing in the Intertoto Cup this summer.

The AS daily said on Saturday that Atletico will probably sell Torres to Liverpool this week for around 36 million euros, in order to finance a 'couple of top-level signings' such as Jose Antonio Reyes and Alvaro Recoba.

Valencia, for their part, are keen on Juventus' David Trezeguet, and several English clubs have set their sights of Frederic Kanoute from UEFA Cup winners Sevilla.