A report revealed on September 3rd revealed that Manchester United took an even bigger financial hit on the sale of Angel Di Maria than was previously thought. That was bad news.
However, another study revealed today brings good news. United received £11.2 million more than they should have from Paris St. Germain in that deal. This claim is according to CIES, who ranked the five biggest overpays in the 2015 European summer transfer window.
Di Maria to PSG, a very ugly and extremely protracted transfer, came in fourth. Christian Benteke moving from Aston Villa to Liverpool was third, Kevin De Bruyne’s move from Wolfsburg to Manchester City was second, and unfortunately, the “top spot” goes to United, in their acquisition of Anthony Martial.
The Red Devils paid triple his projected value.
Getting back to Di Maria, United sold him to the Ligue 1 giants for £44 million in early August, and that produced an initial financial hit of £15 million. Turns out his massive contract (when United bought him from Real Madrid last summer the price tag was £59.7 million, the richest deal in British football history) and an unfavorable exchange rate, led to an even bigger deficit for Old Trafford.
Foenix Partners — who specialise in FX solutions and advice — calculated that a strong Sterling-Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate could have cost the Premier League club as much as an extra £7.5m.
Therefore, a weak Euro led to the Red Devils being even more in the red on the ledger than had been previously accounted.
Just a week ago, Di Maria blasted Van Gaal over how he was treated at United. There was obviously tension between Van Gaal and Di Maria, and you can reason that it had a tremendous impact on why the Argentine winger decided to leave for PSG. It was an overall ugly situation. In addition to feelings getting hurt, money was lost. Today we learned that it wasn’t that bad of a deal, as United ended up getting a very good sale price for him.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 the Zone.
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