The world's highest transfer fee. How many players can turn it down?
There was once a player who was offered the world's biggest transfer, but he flatly refused. He didn't even think about it. This was because of his absolute loyalty and love for his club.
This is Raúl González, a hero of the Spanish club Real Madrid.
Raul came up through the Real Madrid youth ranks and made his first team debut in 1994. He went on to play for Real Madrid for 16 seasons until 2010. In total, he played 741 matches for the club. He"s the number one player in the history and tradition of Real Madrid. He scored 323 goals. Raul is third on the all-time list, behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.
During this time, Raul won a total of 16 titles, including six Spanish Primera Liga titles and three UEFA Champions League (UCL) titles. He was a favorite of Real Madrid fans.
This is why he received one of the highest transfer offers in the world. This was revealed by his agent, Guinness Carvajal.
He didn"t mention the exact time. He explained that it was during his prime. If so, it would be in the early to mid-2000s. That's when English Premier League (EPL) club Chelsea offered the world's highest transfer fee for Raul. A whopping 100 million euros ($146.7 billion). As Carvajal remembers it, the world record transfer fee at the time was £70 million ($120 million).
If Chelsea can afford to pay that much, it"s likely to be after 2003. That"s because Russian owner 카지노 Roman Abramovich took over in 2003. He has been aggressively investing to revitalize the club, and it's likely that Raul was on his radar.
"Raul could have played in the EPL when he was in his prime," says Carvajal. I was linked to many EPL clubs, but the only official offer was from Chelsea. "Chelsea contacted me and they offered a transfer fee of €100 million. It was the highest transfer fee in the world. But Raul had no intention of leaving Real Madrid. He didn't even think about it. He rejected it immediately," he says.
Real Madrid rejected the world's highest transfer fee and stayed. But it wouldn't last forever. In 2010, Raul left Real Madrid to join Schalke 04 in Germany. It was a shocking move for Real Madrid fans. It wasn"t Raul"s choice. It was the choice of Real Madrid, a club that had fallen from its prime.
Raul wanted to be a "one-club man" like Manchester United's Ryan Giggs, who came through the youth ranks, broke into the first team in 1990 and played 24 seasons for the club until 2014. In total, he played 963 games and scored 168 goals. Giggs is the all-time leader in appearances for the EPL's top club. Despite being a midfielder, he also ranks seventh all-time in goals scored. During this time, he won 36 titles, including 13 league titles, two UCL titles, and England's first "treble".
United were Giggs, and Giggs was United. It was the picture Raúl had hoped for, but it never came to pass.
"I wanted the same thing to happen with Giggs," says Carvajal, "but it didn't happen then. Raul didn't consider any transfer options. He was also the captain of Real Madrid," he confesses.