Acquiring professional soccer teams has been a recent growing trend that may turn out to be long-term lucrative investments. Energy drink maker Red Bull GmbH took a chance and acquired the MetroStars of the U.S. Major League Soccer in 2006 while Cleveland Browns LLC owner Randolph Lerner in 2006 announced a £62.6 million ($118.3 million) bid for English soccer club Aston Villa plc. Now The New York Times reports Monday that a Brazilian company named Traffic is just one of a handful that is taking it one step further by acquiring contracts of young Brazilian soccer players, who have been known to be some of the best soccer players in the world.
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Traffic then lends the players to teams, who pay the players a salary and also allow
them to showcase their talents. Should the player be recruited by a European league team, Traffic and its partners receive the largest share of the transfer
fee, which for a top-tier player can run in the millions of dollars, euros or pounds. A transer fee is usually a sum of money the acquiring club pays to the player's former club and player, or a combination of both, for the remaining sum of the player's contract.
The biggest transfer fee ever, according to some reports, was for €76 million ($121 million) when Spanish team Real Madrid paid Italian team Juventus for French star Zinedine Zidane in 2001. But for younger players, there is still money to be made by companies such as Traffic as German team Bayern Munich spent a reported $19 million for Breno Vinicius
Borges, an 18-year-old defender from Brazil, who had played just 22 games for São Paulo. - Gerald Magpily
See New York Times article
See Dealscape: What's in a name?
TheDeal.com: Browns owner grabs Aston Villa
See Dealwatch: Soccer
