I have to agree , those two are something else , which if the rumours are true about Bale's proposed move being £94 million what price on Messi or Ronaldo Swansea City boss Michael Laudrup has claimed that Gareth Bale is not as good as Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. The Welshman is expected to make his switch to Real Madrid in the near future. However, Laudrup believes that Messi and Ronaldo are on another level to any other player. "You have to admit that Gareth Bale was a superstar for Tottenham [Hotspur] last season," Laudrup told FourFourTwo. "When you see Real Madrid, they are very good players but at certain points they have Ronaldo, and Barcelona have Messi. Super teams, but also they have that one player who makes a difference. "You have 10 or 12 players just below and Bale is definitely there with [Andres] Iniesta, [Sergio] Aguero and Robin van Persie. They are all great players, but you have to say Messi and Ronaldo are something special." Swansea take on Spurs tomorrow afternoon.
I recon it's mostly due to shirtsales though... Both Real Madrid and Barcelona built their Whole tactical concept around those two players ---> why they score so much. Interesting how Ronaldo will pair up with Bale as Messi pairing up with Neymar...
If Messi or Ronaldo were sold for 180million, then the shirt sales and merchandise etc would re coup the majority of that money within 12 months. However, when it comes to shirt sales, Bales isn't currently in the top 10 worldwide, so it will be interesting to see how much money RM make from his shirt sales.
A lot of shirt sales are to do with image too. Ronaldo is a pretty-boy, Messi isn't exactly ugly whilst Bale looks like a bulldog licking piss off a nettle.
Ronaldo looks as if someone poored a bucket of vaseline over him, Messi is a dwarf on stereoids - it's all to do with sponsorships, big time Money and public relations. After a while you'll realize that Bale is a handsome man in comparison.
Ronaldo is 28, no one is going to pay that much for him. Messi would go for more than Bale. Probably not that much more as there'd be concerns over how he'd fit into a non-Barca style outfit.
If RM put Ronaldo up for sale tomorrow you'd have to pay well over 100million for him, and the likes of man city, monaco and psg probably would too.
Absolutely obscene amount of money to kick a bag of wind that is ruining football and all it stands for. He will also earn £10 million after tax, Its way over the top and the germans are right to reorganize how their country runs their football. football is dying of a slow death and killing the chance of the ordinary working classes of enjoying football as it should be run....match day prices have gone through the roof and not value for money any more for just 90 minutes of entertainment. £10-£15 is ample to watch a game of football imo but the more clubs pay for players and pay them stupid money it pushes the price to an unacceptable level in relation to the average working person income. I fear for future generations i really do...
You're so right - I pay £320 for my season ticket: gives me 16 homegames, Cup games plus access to CL-games! The prices you pay are absurd!
No one would pay £100m for a player that turns 30 in 18 months. Realistically Ronaldo has ~4 top seasons left in him. What's he going be worth in 2/3 years time? It's a similar situation to RVP, absolutely top class player yet due to his age sold for less than Andy Carrol.
It is a ridiculous amount Real are paying for Bale considering barca bought Neymar for around 45m and Monaco paid around 50m for Falcao. But as someone mentioned they will probably get most of it back from shirt sales within a couple of seasons. But I do have my doubts wether he will be a hit in Real on the same scale as Ronaldo. And dont anyone dare putting him on the same level as Iniesta No one is on the same level as Iniesta. End of.
And in those 4 years he will probably win that team the league every season, a couple of cups and maybe even a european cup, not to mention hundereds of millions in new revenue through marketing and merchandise sales. A more than adequate investment.
Laudrup compares Bale to Iniesta - he could actually have both the knowledge and status to do this comparison: It's a fine press conference to see, he mentions Iniesta approx 4:30. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx6bBeQcXKc
All high profile players will bring huge merchandise sales, that's why their prices are so inflated in the first place. Realistically though, Ronaldo has 4 seasons of big merchandise revenue left in him whereas Bale has 8. Real know what they are doing, Bale to them is worth ~£90M Ronaldo looks like he'll go back to united next season for around ~£40M
Disagree there. Giggs is pushing 40 and still playing for Utd, Scholes 38 retired and now it looks like the likes of Lampard and Gerrard are going to be pushing 34-35 by the time they finish top class football (the evolution of sports science and the likes of yoga etc is allowing players to carry on playing longer than before). Provided Ronaldo adapts his game similar to how Giggs has once that yard of pace starts to diminish, then he could easily play well into his 30s at the top. As for the 40million, that's a hell of a lot of money for somebody who would only have another year left on his contract next year, so you can imagine what it would be if they were to sell him now.
