Football is a spectacular, intense, and unforgettable game loved and appreciated by millions of fans. There are many nuances in it, both known and not so much. Almost every fan knows or has heard about football transfers. They get a lot of attention, all the media, and Internet news websites such as Scores24.live closely monitor the players’ movements and post up-to-date and relevant data on their pages.
Fans enjoy following their favorite players, their play, achievements, careers, their movement from club to club, and the competition of famous top teams for the best players in the world. This is called a transfer. There are enormous amounts of money at stake in these transfers, which change hands from club to club.
The notion of a football transfer
The transfer is an essential part of every player’s career, and it plays an important role in professional and career development. During the transfer window, important questions are clarified as to which team and with whom the player will play in the future as a professional.
A football transfer is an agreement that takes place during a specific period for buying and selling players. It is called the transfer window. Usually, the window period falls between the summer and winter seasons. In European countries, the summer period is from the 20th of May to the 12th of September, the winter period is from the 1st of January to the 31st of January. During these periods there are numerous negotiations between the clubs, and directly with the players. The deal closes with the signing of the contract with the footballer.
The agreement stipulates a specific period during which the player has to defend the interests of the club that bought him, salary, bonus payments, rights and obligations of the parties, and the transfer value. However, it does not always depend on an objective assessment of the player’s performance, but more on the agreement of the representatives of the two clubs. In football’s past, there have been many situations where quite talented players were sold for less than those who were not as skilled and capable. In football practice, there are often cases where in addition to money for a player, they also give away their unwanted footballer.
Professional players sign contracts for a clearly defined period, but no longer than 6 years. If a player changes clubs before the contract expires, the new owner makes a compensation payment to the old club. This is known as the transfer price or transfer value. The most expensive transfers:
- Brazilian Neymar has moved from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for 222 million euros.
- Frenchman Kylian Mbappé from Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain for 180 million euros.
- Brazilian Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool to Barcelona for 160 million euros.
- Portuguese Joao Felix from Benfica to Atletico Madrid for 126 million euros.
Successful transfer deals are published in various transfer rankings and are made public. The fans are as much interested in transfer moves as in the results of the ongoing team competitions. This is particularly the case in the off-season, when teams do not have official tournaments, but spend time and focus on strengthening the team.
How the transfer process works
A party that intends to buy a player sends a request for a specific footballer to its owner. The latter, in turn, after reviewing the request, puts forward an approximate price for the player. Then begins the negotiation process, in which the interests of the desired player, the bonus payments, and many other nuances are taken into account.
Agents play an important role in the negotiation process. They are the so-called linking element between the player and his employer. Agents are often relatives and deal with all financial and legal issues that arise during the transfer process.
The negotiation part of the deal involves painstaking work with both the player and the agent, the club, and a team of lawyers who work through all the terms: contract duration, payment, loyalty bonuses, and signing bonuses. A player must undergo a medical examination to check his physical condition. If any injuries unknown up to that point are detected, the transfer value may change.
Almost every team has a scouting service. Their main task is to work on strengthening the team. They do a lot of analytical work and draw up a list of desired transfers for the club’s manager to consider. The opinion of the team’s head coach plays a vital role. Only after that does the activity to carry out the transfer begin. But negotiations do not always go smoothly. Many of them fail during the negotiation of the player’s price or because of other contractual clauses.
In some cases the transfer takes place on a free basis, namely when a player’s signed contract has expired, his transfer takes place on a free agent basis.
A common occurrence is transfer scandals. Often they arise as a result of a player’s conflicts within the team, with the coaching staff or the team management.
Conclusion
The best football teams around the world spend millions to strengthen and update their teams. There is fabulous money to be made in this field. Football has become a global market where professional players change clubs with regular frequency.
Every day the transfer amounts are tending to increase. This is due to the fact that clubs earn enough money on transfers and there is no cap on the number of transfers.
UEFA plans to establish a limit on transfers. The main reason for this action is that football has to be brought back as a game because nowadays, it is more like a business.
