Talent flight in LaLiga

Messi's departure would be a hard blow to LaLiga as a global brand. “The impact of Cristiano's departure was almost nil for the League, if Messi left, we would notice it a lot because it is the best player in football history“Javier Tebas said in RAC1 in June. The Portuguese and Argentine they coincided in Spain for nine years, between 2009 and 2018. At that time, four Ballons d'Or were distributed each and left a legendary rivalry in the style of Federer vs Nadal, Ali vs Fraizer Messi, Larry Bird vs Magic Johnson, Rossi vs Marquez or Prost vs Ayrton Senna. Currently, according to the list Forbes of the highest paid athletes in 2020, Cristiano ranks second, behind Roger Federer, and Messi, third, leaving behind Neymar, LeBron James, Curry, Durant or Tiger Woods.

Beyond the economic numbers that they may be doing right now in Italy to bring Messi, as happened with Cristiano two years ago, the departure of the Argentine would leave us another reality difficult to digest for our football. To the setback of not having any Spanish team in the semifinals of the Champions League this year, something that had not happened since 2007, we should add the progressive drain of talent. LaLiga has been losing stars for three years, just when Neymar left Barça for 222 million euros. Every year more players with cache leave us during this summer time. If we take as a reference the current value of each footballer, according to the portal Transfermarkt (specialized in the quotation of footballers), the joint value of the footballers who left LaLiga most renowned, in 2017-18, it amounts to 226 million euros; the global price of those that left in 2018-19 rises to € 351.2M; and the current price of those who left the national competition rises to € 429.5M.

“Will the tournament lose attractiveness?”, They ask from Argentina

“Antoine Griezmann, Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric, Eden Hazard, Karim Benzema, Joao Felix and Diego Costa. All among the three most powerful. Now, are they top-level figures? “, Olé asked. We have been saying for years that we are the best League in the world, but not only do they take away young players from the Premier (Ferran Torres), but also the Bundesliga (Lucas), the A series (Fabián Ruiz) or the League 1 (Pablo Sarabia). Easier to accept are exits to middle East (like those of Banega or Cazorla) in search of a golden retirement, but we also have the feeling that they could have continued to polish LaLiga for another year or two without problems. Without Messi, the picture looks bright. For example, in the UEFA dream team last year there was only two soccer players of the Spanish championship (Messi and De Jong, taking into account that the main merits of the latter were with Ajax). At year 2016, instead, eight of the eleven players played for clubs in our country (Messi, Cristiano, Griezmann, Iniesta, Kroos, Modric, Ramos and Pique) and in 2015, seven (Messi, Neymar, Cristiano, James, Iniesta, Piqué and Ramos). And in the Selection Nine of the 24 players from Luis Enrique's last call-up play in foreign leagues (Kepa, De Gea, Eric García, Fabián Ruiz, Thiago Alcántara, Rodrigo Hernández, Dani Olmo, Adama Traoré and Ferran Torres).

The problem is that Messi's goodbye could cause a domino effect. Without going any further, the Uruguayan Luis Suarez, that could be another of the great losses of the new Barça of Koeman. And during the summer market there are always siren songs from the Premier to the Atlético star, Jan Oblak. PSG and Arsenal are tempting Thomas. Saul he has always liked it at Old Trafford. So if Real Madrid, Barça and Atlético have a hard time retaining their stars, it is science fiction for the teams in the next caboose to keep big stars. He Seville sold the past to its stars (Ben Yedder, Muriel and Sarabia), but has maintained Spanish pride, conquering the Europa League, and leaving our League as the best competition in Europe in the UEFA ranking of the last five years. But Valencia, on the other hand, is a ruin because it is getting rid of its best players. And others, like Athletic, or Betis, they even saw with good eyes the rain of millions by players like Kepa, Laporte or Fabián Ruiz. Below we review the most media names of the most sensitive casualties of LaLiga, during the last three years, thanks to the idea launched by our head analyst, Álvaro Benito, on Cadena SER and that served to promote this report: “The Messi thing is a tragedy for Barça and for Spanish football. The talent drain in these years is evident and is what worries the most.”

2020-21 season *

2019-20 season: € 429.5M

2018-19 season: € 351.2M

Season 2017-18: 226

* Current quote of players according to Transfermarkt