Money & Transfers

By: AJ | August 8th, 2007

Money & transfers, like peanut butter & jelly, it seems like these two were made for each other. So without further undo let’s talk about money & transfers, shall we?

Overview
Well, to start, let’s get one thing clear, don’t burst into laughter after you hear some of the figures I’m going to mention, remember Cruzeiro is a Brazilian league team (The league itself makes something like $24 million, for comparison sakes the Premier League make $130 million and The Championship makes $25 million!) so don’t expect too much. Cruzeiro is exactly the 150th richest club in the world with a revenue of $29 million per year. The only clubs in Brazil that are richer are (of course São Paulo-$65 million, Internacional-$57 million, Flamengo-$38 million, Palmeiras & Corinthians-$33 million). Cruzeiro makes the same amount of money as Galatasaray SK, Getafe CF, Ascoli Calcio 1898 and Empoli FC make.

Personally I want to see that number get into the high thirties this season and the only way to do that, besides selling every good player we have, is to be successful. By successful I mean a good placement in the Brazilian championship (top four) and even a good run in this years Sudamericana would help. As we all know success and championships really help a club, but in Brazil 75% of a clubs revenue tends to come from selling their players.

Transfers

Here are the players Cruzeiro have sold so far in 2007:

Sold:
€4.2 million – Fábio Santos
€1 million (has already returned from loan) – Wágner
€250 thousand (one year loan to Sporting, valued at €7 million) – Gladstone
€2 million – Luizão
$500 thousand – Rômulo
€3.5 million – Araújo
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Total: €11.1

Bought:
Renan and Fábio Santos – R$ 450 thousand (on loan)
Ricardinho – free
Marcinho – free (traded for Leandro and Martinez)
Leandro Domingues – R$ 800 thousand (50% of rights)
Maicosuel – R$ 1.3 million (60% of rights)
Fellype Gabriel – free
Rafinha – undisclosed
Pedro Júnior – free (traded for Teco)
Nenê – R$ 350 thousand (55% of rights)
Rômulo – R$1.3 million (60% of rights)
Marcelo Moreno – club did not pay (US$ 400 thousand Spanish investors bought 90% of the players rights and passed to Cruzeiro 40%. The other 10% belongs to the athlete.)
Ramires – free (70% of rights are valued at US$ 300 thousand)
Léo Fortunato – R$ 200 thousand (payed to Madureira to end player’s contract)
Marcelo Tavares – free
Mariano – R$ 150 thousand (rights are valued at R$ 500 thousand)
Daniel – free
Roni – free
Fernandinho – R$ 600 thousand (25% of rights)
Thiago – US$ 540 thousand (50% of rights).
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Total: €2 million

Possible sales:
Weldon – Yokohama Marinus of Japan– US$ 200 thousand

Possible buys:
Anderson – Benfica – €2.5 million or loan

Comparison to other Brazilian clubs
I know what you’re saying, “€11 million, that’s it?” I know that even by Brazilian standards that is somewhat pitiful and other clubs in Brazil have made that or even more than that in just one sale this season (namely Internacional and São Paulo). But think about this – many players in Brazil aren’t actually owned by the club itself, instead clubs usually just own a small stake of the player and usually get help from “investors” to supply the cash. When it comes time to sell the player the “investors” usually end up making more money off the deals than the club itself. With Cruzeiro though, this is not true. The club owns practically all of its players and doesn’t need to rely on foreign companies to purchase its players. So what does this mean? Well it means that almost all the money Cruzeiro makes goes directly into the club’s piggy bank and unlike other clubs, the money doesn’t need to be split with “investors”. In addition, much of the revenue that clubs like Flamengo or Corinthians make go towards paying old debts, in some cases these debts get to be as high as €50 million (cough, cough Corinthians cough, cough). According to club president, Alivimar de Oliviero Costa, Cruzeiro manages to pay all its expenses (although, he did say “sometimes with difficulty”), but Cruzeiro have no debts, which is a really good thing. And on top of all Cruzeiro hasn’t really had to sell “key” players this season and has really only sold “unwanted” players. While other clubs have been making a lot of money but selling their most important players in the process.

Future transfers
Although Cruzeiro won’t be ably to cash in a ton of money this season, I believe there will be plenty of cash coming in next season. Cruzeiro currently has two of Brazil’s “next Alexandre Pato”. They are Guilherme (who you here me talk about all the time – he is almost the same age as Pato, has played almost the same amount of games as Pato this season and has scored more goals than Pato this season, which makes him – in my opinion of course – more expansive than Pato). The other promise is Kerlon, who was voted best player and top scorer in the U-17 South American Championship in 2005. Kerlon was back then considered a big Brazilian promise. He also became famous for his Seal Dribble, where he dribbled the ball with his head (a YouTube favorite). Kerlon should have been in Europe by now, but in the last two years he has been hit with two huge injuries that has kept him out for an enormously amount of time, he is currently still injured. Manchester United were interested in Kerlon two years ago and Inter and AC Milan were interested last year and lately there have been reports that Torino may be interested. Kerlon is valued at €10 and the only way Guilherme is going is for €20+. If any European club presidents are reading this (cause I know you are) I would recommend you buy, out of the two, Kerlon. Because once he heals and starts playing again, he’ll become much more valuable. Take for example Pato who seven months ago was worth €7 and now? €20. Kerlon, in my opinion, will be pretty big in a year or two. Remember – Kerlon and Guilherme – you heard it here first.