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If you believed some of the more hyperactive press coverage recently, you’d think that the Russians were coming… to buy up all the world’s best football players with oligarchs’ blood money.
Anzhi in particular have spent big over the past few months, buying Samuel Eto’o for 27 million euros, Yuri Zhikov 15 million, plus signing Brazilian legend Roberto Carlos as a free agent on a 10 million euro deal.
But actually, Russian teams aren’t dominating the global football transfer market – they’re merely catching up with the rest of Europe.
Take a look at this infographic (from RIA Novosti, who I seem to be linking to far too often recently)…
…and you’ll see that the biggest Russian transfer of the season so far isn’t even in the top five global transfers, and that none of the other big deals seem at all extravagant in comparison with the amount that an average Premier League, La Liga or Serie A team would pay for a new player.
Matt Harris
