Comments on: Real Madrid Are Taking Our Children!

By: Free Bet Man

Free Bet Man — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:10:54 +0000

I disagree with many of the posts here suggesting that the big European clubs should be allowed to come in and poach any talented player they like from thousands of miles away in South America.
Teams like River Plate have worked hard on developing their own youth academies on very little money, aided by the fact that they are not getting the money they should for players they developed from a young age.
These clubs will never be able to fend of clubs such as Madrid, Chelsea and Barcelona if they are not able to hold onto their youth players for long enough to reap the rewards.
There’s two sides of the story remember.

By: Daryl

Daryl — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:00:28 +0000

John,

Just to be clear, I wasn’t taking a shot specifically at Real Madrid. I totally understand that all clubs do this type of thing (click that last link in the post.)

By: john

john — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:28:02 +0000

Yeah, this isn’t necessarily a Madrid thing, it’s actually much more common with Barcelona (who’ve made 2 similar moves in recent months, most recently 15 year old argentine Mauro Icardi, two weeks ago), and happens not Infrequently with English clubs as well. In fact, Madrid is sometimes critisized for not pursuing young players more aggresively to bolster their youth team, Castilla. So nice attempt to take a shot at Real Madrid, Daryl, but this is not a new, nor particularly Madridista tactic.

By: Diatus

Diatus — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:17:08 +0000

Give me a break…let the kid go!!!Kids like that are a dime a dozen in Brazil and West Africa. Greedy Vasco!!!

By: Jan

Jan — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:28:03 +0000

The reason why European clubs start caring about poor families in Brazil is because of millions of Euros as well, not because they’ve gone philantropic.

By: Corey

Corey — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:03:25 +0000

I dont read much into these things, Brazilian clubs simply want to make the most money off players they can, it hardly has to do with the child living a normal life for awhile before becoming a pro footballer. If a 15 year old and his family want to move to Spain and join Real’s youth setup, how can Vasco stop them, they cant contract a 15 year old. They simply want to hold on to him til 18 or 19 then sell him for millions, they care very little in his long term development unless it yields them euros.

By: Jan

Jan — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:01:53 +0000

Lionel Messi’s family moved to Spain to start a new life there, while Barcelona was willing to pay for the hormone therapy Messi needed and which his club in Argentina couldn’t afford. He joined Barcelona’s youth academy and then became a superduperstar for cheap.

Those are the new tricks of the trade. Rich European clubs offer families from poor countries a new life and save between €20-30m on transfer fees later.