Published 18:26 IST, August 21st 2020
PSG vs Bayern: French giants have spent €783m vs German champions' €367m to build squad
As new money meets old money in the form of PSG vs Bayern in the UCL final, here's a look at how much the two clubs spent in recruiting over the years.
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Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich will face Ligue 1 winners Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the Champions League final on Monday, August 24 at the Estadio da Luz. Both teams have looked imperious en route to the Champions League final but have gone about getting there in very different ways. PSG have splashed out a whopping €783m to build their squad in comparison to Bayern Munich's mere €367m, which is much less than half of what the Parisians spent.
PSG vs Bayern: PSG club value in comparison to Bayern Munich
PSG were famously taken over by their wealthy Qatari owners in 2011 and wasted no time in spending the cash. According to Transfermarkt, PSG have spent an astronomical €1.23 billion to reach their first-ever Champions League final, with their current squad costing around €783m. PSG's spending includes paying a €220m world-record transfer fee to Barcelona for the services of Neymar in 2017. PSG also spent €180m to sign World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe from AS Monaco. These two figures make up more than half of the €783m spent on the whole PSG squad.
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Meanwhile, German giants Bayern Munich have splashed a reported €367m on their current squad. The Bavarians signed star forward Robert Lewandowski for a mere €4.5m while David Alaba arrived for just €150,000. Incredibly, Bayern's most expensive player in their starting line-up is goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who cost the club around €30m in 2011.
Bayern Munich’s squad cost less than HALF of big-spending PSG to assemble at £330m compared to £700m. Now, BAYERN go up against PSG in the Champions League final in the most-eagerly-anticipated match of the season. Will the money be worth it come Sunday night, though? pic.twitter.com/YXtXwpx8IH
— Lilian Chan (@bestgug) August 20, 2020
Strangely, Bayern's total squad cost at €367m is significantly higher than the cost of their starting eleven. The likes of record-signing Lucas Hernandez (€80m), Javi Martinez (€40m) and Corentin Tolisso (€41m) cost a lot of money despite being mainly restricted to appearances from the bench. However, even at €367m, Bayern Munich spent less than half of PSG's jaw-dropping €783m.
PSG club value growth over the past decade
According to reports from Forbes, PSG were second on the list of the fastest-growing team values of the decade. PSG"s reported value of $1.09 billion (€930million) equated to a 10-year growth of a staggering 992%. PSG's move to sign Neymar and Mbappe also had an effect on the transfer market as a whole as it gave strength to clubs selling in-demand talent.
It is widely believed that PSG were one of the main reasons for the inflation in the current transfer market. Following Neymar's transfer from Barcelona to PSG in the summer of 2017, the LaLiga giants splashed out a whopping €105m for Ousmane Dembele as a replacement for the Brazilian. The inflation in the market was apparent with Philippe Coutinho's move from Liverpool to Barcelona for €160m in January 2018 and with Virgil van Dijk arriving from Southampton to Liverpool for €83m, a then world-record transfer fee for a defender. The signing of Mbappe for PSG on a permanent basis in 2018 was then just a knock-on effect.
Image Credits - Neymar / Robert Lewandowski Instagram
18:25 IST, August 21st 2020