Real Mallorca Sold For The Change In The Couch

By: chris | August 8th, 2009

A recent classified found in the Spanish press:

Cash-strapped football club in TOP DIVISION needs to sell NOW! Right NOW! Plucky little side which is destined to hover around mid-table, and perhaps even poke and prod at a European spot before backing away in terror. Will not challenge for silverware, but that will be easily forgotten as it is located on a Mediterranean island. New owner will look forward to an ageing, decrepit, angry Samuel Eto’o threatening his life within 5 years. Did we mention it’s on a MEDITERRANEAN ISLAND?

Must go RIGHT NOW! All sales FINAL! Asking price ONLY 4 MILLION EUROS!

Yes, you read that correctly. Real Mallorca, a team which finished 9th in La Liga, perhaps the top league in the world right now, was going for a mere €4m. In British terms, that’s £3.4m. In non-monetary terms, Florentino Perez wipes his morning constitutionals with that much in papyrus.

And, as you might expect, it piqued someone’s interests. First it was Carlos Gonzalez, a Spanish businessman, whose deal looked all but gravy and then fell through. But it didn’t take someone long to realize that Mallorca just might be at their “buy low” point and that snapping up a football club for roughly 1/24th the price of Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer fee – a couple toes, perhaps? – would be a very smart idea.

In fact, €4m buys you an Alvaro Arbeloa with one year left on his contract. Which would you rather have: Alvaro Arbeloa or Real Mallorca? Precisely. Florentino should’ve engulfed Real and made La Liga a 19 horse race.

Of course I won’t pretend to know just how much trouble Mallorca, like many Spanish clubs not named Barcelona or Real Madrid, are in, but if Mateu Alemany was selling his 96% for a nominal fee, it can’t be good. And yet if the new owners, the “Marti Mingarro brothers”, can afford to right the ship, this is an absolute coup of epic proportions – and putting the impact of the global recession on football into real perspective.

And it makes me wonder why The Offside didn’t start up a collection.