Top 5 European selling clubs in the last decade
An end of a season brings another transfer window and throughout the summer, clubs all around Europe frantically try to bring in new talents or superstars to propel their campaign either towards glory or achieve goals set for the year. It is a month of nerves for managers as well as the fans, but more than them its brutal for one entity i.e. The Selling club.Many clubs have to go through the brunt of selling their players for different reasons ranging from clearing debts, to re-invest in another talent, to respect the aspirations of players or quite simply just to get rid of them. Whatever be the reason, the continuity of these clubs are broken as they have gone through a phase of stability achieving success. The bigger vultures are ready to cherry pick the top performers who have helped achieve success for some clubs.We take a look at the top 5 selling clubs in the last decade who have had to lose players consistently year on year.
#5 Atletico Madrid
Approximate Revenue earned: more than €200 million
The current La Liga champions and Champions leagues finalists Atletico Madrid had a phenomenal last year, breaking the duopoly of Barcelona and Real Madrid in the league.
A fairytale ending at Camp Nou saw them being crowned champions despite the fact that they have had to sell their star assets. The club’s financial situation is such that they will have to keep selling their players in order to pay off huge debts.
The very fact that they have been able to perform so well the last two years speaks volumes about the coach and the players that are imported and coming through the youth system. This year too they have ended up losing important players from the first team like Diego Costa and Filipe Luis, as well as from the squad.
As a team, for their achievements, they will always be raided by billionaire backed clubs for the players who have helped the team achieve success.
Some of the big names who have moved out from Atletico include Radamael Falcao who moved to Monaco for €60 million a deal which earned them a cool profit of €20 million, Diego Costa moved to Chelsea for £32 million after joining for an undisclosed fee. Local hero and crowd favorite Fernando Torres moved to Liverpool for £20 million – a huge sum seven years ago.