The pages of sports publications are full of notes about the numerous transitions of footballers and hockey players from one club to another. And sometimes they outrage ordinary mortals by the millions of players' contracts, many of whom have only recently graduated from high school. A completely different attitude to such news among real fans, who are well aware of the nuances of long and difficult negotiations between clubs, players and their agents, thanks to which the transition is made. In the English-speaking manner, it is called "transfer".
Transfer window
Transitions of athletes, especially in team sports, have existed for about as long as professional sports itself. Another thing is that at first they tried to hide or disguise the transfers in order to preserve the status of amateurs for the leading athletes and give them the opportunity to perform, for example, at the Olympic Games. Where the professionals, that is, those who ran and scored goals for money, were not allowed for a long time. The USSR and other countries of Eastern Europe were especially diligent in this disguise, which allowed them to deceive the International Olympic Committee for decades and regularly win the Olympics.
Most often, transitions, more precisely, the purchase, sale or exchange of athletes, occur at specially designated time intervals, in the so-called windows. Or in the offseason. Let's say in European football it's June and July. Historians say the first officially recorded transfer happened in 1893 in England, when Aston Villa football club bought striker Willie Grose from West Bromwich for £ 100 - an amount that today's footballers would consider simply offensive.
By the way, transfers of athletes are often compared to the slave trade popular in the past centuries in the slave market. People who are far from sports and who do not know that, unlike the Middle Ages, the current transactions are carried out with the direct participation of an athlete, who usually has a significant cash bonus from the transfer, especially often sin with such analogies. In addition, the transitions contribute not only to an increase in the skill level of the football player or hockey player himself, but also to the strengthening of his new team. This is important for successful performance both in domestic competitions and in the international arena. For example, in continental club competitions such as the European Football Champions League.
Attention to the forward
The first stage of any sports transfer starts long before the signing of the agreement and the issuance of the so-called transfer list, without which it is simply impossible to play. It starts inside the club - a potential buyer of the player, who is looked at and studied for a long time by breeders-scouts, and then by coaches. It is usually the head coach who decides whether a player is needed by the team. And if he thinks that she really needs this forward or goalkeeper, he informs the president of the club about it. Or, which happens more often, the general manager.
The second stage begins with consideration of a reasoned request from the head coach and a purchase decision made by the club's management. And the subsequent transfer request to the club that owns the rights to the athlete. Further, the general manager of the buyer contacts the player's agent, and he already begins to communicate with his client and the seller club. The latter, having learned about the subject interest, either expresses his readiness to sell it, provided, of course, the consent of the player himself, or refuses. What is reported to the agent and the player.
The degree of compliance of the club is usually influenced not only by the athlete's desire to change the team, but also by the possible material benefit, as well as the term of the contract. It is often more profitable for a club to sell a player a year before the expiration of the agreement and receive substantial compensation for the early termination of the contract than to let go for free after the expiration of the contract.
Blow to the hands
The third stage consists in negotiations of clubs with the participation of an agent, often lasting for months. In this case, everything happens in about the same way as on the stock exchange. The buyer tries to purchase the “product” he is interested in as cheaply as possible, while the seller and the agent who receives the interest from the transaction try to sell at a higher price. Although sometimes the buyer pays without bargaining. This happens not only when the seller asks for very little money, but also, for example, if a player is needed, as they say, desperately, and there are literally hours left before the transfer window closes. Or if for a football star from a provincial or not very rich club there is a whole line of people who want to buy it.
The option of selling a football player as soon as possible in order to urgently buy someone else with the proceeds is not uncommon. For example, English Liverpool willingly agreed to sell the scandalous Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez to Barcelona in order to acquire French Karim Benzema in another Spanish superclub - Real Madrid.
The fourth stage occurs after both clubs, as they say, have shaken hands. And negotiations began with the agent, and sometimes with the player himself, about the terms of the latter's personal contract. Only after all the points of the transfer agreement have been agreed, and the interests of all parties are met, the final amount sounds, which must be transferred from bank to bank as soon as possible. After that, finally, a transfer list comes to the buyer's club, and the player begins to pack his bags for moving to another city or another country.
Goal for 15 million
Each professional athlete, like any product, has its own value, which depends on the level of his skill, age, country of residence, performances in European competitions and the national team, even reputation. The last World Cup is quite indicative, after which prices for a number of recent stars have dropped markedly. And on some of the previously barely noticeable players who showed themselves brightly at the stadiums of Brazil, on the contrary, they increased significantly.
For example, few people were surprised by the results of the transfer deals in the summer of 2014, as a result of which Real Madrid quickly agreed with the French Monaco to buy the top scorer of the World Cup Colombian James Rodriguez for 80 million euros, and in the Spanish Levante acquired the goalkeeper of the Costa Ricky Keylor Navas. By the way, according to experts of the football market, the price of the attacking midfielder Rodriguez after the 2014 World Cup has grown by a record 44%, but the price of Russian players has dropped significantly.
