I'm not a real big fan of soccer. I like the sport, I watch the world cup, and will watch it when I come across a match on tv. what i want to ask the soccer fans on this board is when does the spanish season begin? I know Real Madrid just bought David Beckham, but is the season over, or is it about to start? thanks in advance
Spanish season starts in September. Continues through early June. You might not see much of Beckham, though, as it's a real mystery as to how he's supposed to actually play for Real Madrid as opposed to just sell shirts for them. If you're thinking of watching some games as a newcomer to the sport, try the English Premier League or the German First Division. La Liga (Spanish League) is the hardest on the eyes because of all the cynical fouling and diving. It or Serie A (the Italian premier division, which is hard to find on tv in the US) is the best technically... but it lacks the excitement of some of the others. Also, if you live in the US, it's hard to find Madrid or Barcelona on tv, as they have separate tv contracts that FSW doesn't have any rights to.
I'm actually just getting into European soccer now. My Italian friend is a huge fan of AC, so he was celebrating quite a bit. I never knew soccer didn't suck until I started watching European matches. According to my friend, Beckham won't ever really play. haven said it well; he is just selling shirts. He won't play much at all, considering there are two guys ahead of him that are better. He isn't that great. He's overhyped and washed up. And btw, Juventus SUCKS.
how much revenue do top notch euro clubs like real madrid/manchester united/juventus generate on average per season? Where does real madrid get the money to pay all those superstars that they have? I don't watch La Liga much but doesn't Real madrid have ronaldo, zidane, figo, raul, roberto carlos, and now beckham? it kind of puts cato and moochie's situation in perspective.
Here's a chart showing the top 20 club's revenues in 2000 1. Manchester United (GBP117m/USD177.2m/EUR184.8m) 2. Real Madrid (GBP103.7m/USD142.2m/EUR160.7m) 3. Bayern Munich (GBP91.6m/USD138.7/EUR144.7m) 4. AC Milan (GBP89.7m/USD135.8m/EUR141.7m) 5. Juventus (GBP88.4m/USD133.9m/EUR139.7m) 6. SS Lazio (GBP79.4m/USD120.2m/EUR125.4m) 7. Chelsea (GBP76.7m/USD116.1m/EUR121.1m) 8. Barcelona (GBP75.2m/USD113.8m/EUR118.7m) 9. Inter Milan (GBP68.9m/USD104.3m/EUR108.8m) 10. AS Roma (GBP64.1m/USD97m/EUR101.2m) 11. Arsenal (GBP61.3m/USD92.7m/EUR96.7m) 12. Borussia Dortmund (GBP59.5m/USD89.9m/EUR93.8m) 13. Leeds United (GBP57.1m/USD86.4m/EUR90.1m) 14. Fiorentina (GBP54.2m/USD82m/EUR85.6m) 15. Glasgow Rangers (GBP51.7m/USD78.3m/EUR81.6m) 16. Olympique Marseille (GBP49.9m/USD71m/EUR80m) 17. Tottenham Hotspur (GBP48m/USD72.6m/EUR75.8m) 18. Parma (GBP47.5m/USD71.9m/EUR75m) 19. Liverpool (GBP46.4m/USD70.6m/EUR73.6m) 20. Newcastle United (GBP45.1m/USD71.2m/EUR68.3m) The report it came from is here. http://www.wldcup.com/business/news/2001Dec/20011203_11788_sport_business.html It's a few years old but it gives a rough estimate of how much a club makes in a year.
I think you are all mistaken if you think Beckham will be nothing more than a benchwarmer for Real Madrid. First not even Real Madrid would spend that much money to sell shirts, even though if he did set a record tearing away 8000 shirts in 8 hours (and only 200 of those in the first hour as the sale starting was not advertised, but then the word of mouth that it was available created a buzz to rip away the others in the next 7 hours). In comparison Luis Figo didnt sell a single shirt on his first day at Real, Zidane sold 300 and Ronaldo 2000. But back to the Beckham issue of playing. Of course he will. And he will play more so now that their new manager is the former assistant manager of Manchester United, who stated that he would play both Beckham and Figo 'all the time' unless they were injured. So you might want to start finding someone else that will warm the bench for Real, as it aint gonna be Beckham.
Wait until they see him play week in, week out. Then he won't play regularly. The money he brings in is a huge part of this deal. Apparently, he has to give Real half of money from any endorsements he signs whilst playing at the club.
Heath: Queiroz was the one that installed the new formation at Man Utd in which Beckham did not fit. Queiroz, not Ferguson, was the primary reason why we saw Solksjaer pay more and more at Beckham's expense. Beckham will play. But he's not going to start. He's a better crosser of the ball than Luis Figo. And he's better from free kicks. But he's slower, much worse on the ball, and less creative with his passes. Besides, Madrid play a 4-2-3-1. Where does Beckham fit in that? He's not really an attacking midfielder, so he can't play the advanced wide right position. Or at least, he's not ideally suited for it. I know he wants to play the holding midfielder position. But I think we've all seen exactly how well David Beckham tackles. In fact, England gave up the equalizer to Brazil precisely because Beckham can't tackle (ok, so he had just recovered from an injury... it's still hard to see Makelele backing down from that challenge). I have no doubt Beckham will get in some games. And he'll play reasonably well. But if Beckham was that valuable for *soccer reasons*... Utd would have kept him. It says something that the player that Queiroz most wanted to take from Man Utd was not Beckham, but John O'Shea.
dn1282: Real Madrid are sort of able to stay afloat for political reasons. A few years ago, they were close to bankruptcy, and the city bailed them out by buying their training complex for something like $300m. It's believed they're deeply in debt right now, but that they're getting very favorable treatment from banks. La Liga (Spanish First Division) is currently 1.2b pounds in debt. Both Serie A and La Liga are in deep, deep ****. It's possible that they're going to get bailed out by their governments. However, you know who's going to put Real Madrid to shame? Friggin Chelsea! A Russian billionare worth around $6b just bought them out. He's already tabled a 34m pound bid for Allessandro Nesta of Milan (rejected, but still...). Chelsea went from being near-bankrupt to being the richest club in Europe in a day. I suppose it's gonna be Man Utd vs Chelsea instead of Arsenal for the forseeable future, until he gets bored w/his new toy...
David Beckam is a fantastic footballer that was not getting the playing time he deserved at Man U. because Fergie was getting annoyed by his pretty boy celebrity status. But Becks is no sissy and he wasn't made captain of the English National team for nothing. He is the best free kick taker in the world after Roberto Carlos and he is a tireless midfielder capable of dominating games. He will play over Figo and Figo will likely be sold in the off season. Otherwise, he, Figo, Zidane and McManaman will be the best midfield in the History of football. Real are the antichrist of football - they have five national team captians playing for them now in Figo, Zidane, Beckham, Raul and Ronaldo. It is getting out of hand. And Juventus is the most entertaining team to watch and far from suck. Watching Del Piero is something akin to watching Yao, it is just fun to see what will happen next. Yeah, Chelsea is going to be a freaking pimp daddy in the coming years. I am glad some respect will be going back to the premiership.
Dude, he likes Milan . That's why he thinks Juve sucks. I've enjoyed watching Chelsea play, because I like Ranieri's strategy. Still, I'm not a big fan of team's with rich owners that fund everything. It's sort of like 1 fan counts for a few hundred million. Some imbalances in income don't bother me - after all, it only seems fair that the Yankees or Man Utd win more, since they have more fans (in a way, you see). But I'm not fond of the Paul Allen's and now Roman Abramovitch's of the world. Don't get me wrong, I think it would be super duper fun to be them and do it, too. It's just bad for sports, imo . About Beckham: he's a great player, which I'm not disputing. But even if you think he's better than Figo (and who knows, he might be), Figo is far better suited to the formation Real Madrid run than Beckham. Beckham is by far best in a flat 4-4-2 which forces the ball down the flanks. He also needs a couple of strikers in the b ox for his crosses. In England, he has this. At Man Utd and now Real Madrid... he won't. Beckham really should have gone to Serie A, although I guess he didn't have a chance as nobody there could afford him. I think he'd have been fantastic in the Italian League, especially at Inter or Milan. Could you imagine a player of Beckham's ability at crossing having aerial players like Vieiri AND Crespo in the box? Would have been deadly. Incidentally, I think you undervalue Beckham w/regard to Roberto Carlos. Beckham is much better at free kicks. Roberto Carlos is way overrated there, imo. He's got a ton of power, but his placement isn't a patch on Beckham's. Real Madrid are evidently planning on getting Ronaldinho, though, in a year to replace Figo. I know he plays on the left or up front now... but he's skillful enough w/his right foot to adjust, I suppose.
"Soccer will be a real sport when they PICK UP THE DAMN BALL AND RUN WITH IT!" --rimrocker's HS Football Coach
I'm just going by what the man said, and he said he would play both Figo and Beckham, so no need to say that one plays over the other.
If you look at this revenue list, you can see that ManU and Bayern have revenues in Real's range. However, Real spends an insane amount of money while the other two do not. Can you see where this is going...
The other two do spend insane amounts of money. United let Beckham go not because they couldn't afford him, or even because they wanted the money but because they wanted a different direction for their club. And Sir Alex couldn't take anymore of the pretty boy stuff. Munich spends dramatically and has a great club. They dominate in germany and should've done much better in the champs league. Real is going to realize that just throwing all these stars together is going to result in a great team and that is something that ManU and Munich strive for - a team philosophy and cohesion. A team that always does really great because of philosophy and cohesion is Ajax. Their budget can't really compete but they are always in the latter rounds of the champions league and have won it numerous times.
Sir Jackie Chiles: Another bail out by the city of Madrid ? I'd really be pissed if I supported Athletico Madrid...
They also lost because Nedved (who is amazing) was ruled out for the final. And also the fact that Dida advanced like what seemed to be a metre before the penalty kick was even taken!!!! Those penalty kicks should have been retaken imho.
