Without dollars, the Argentine clubs activate the transfer market with an internal rotation of many young people and a few important surnames

With sensational returns that can be explained by the interest of the players and not by the contracts weighed on the official exchange rate; transfers between clubs that compete with each other and returns after a pre-World Cup summer in different leagues, the season ticket market for Argentine football moves according to the pulse of each club. The peculiarity is that the transfer book has been open since 10 November 2022 and will close at the same time as the start of the competition, towards the end of the first month of 2023.

The World Cup shakes the markets of some European leagues and MLS. The rest of the market cannot dream of a reinforcement who has concentrated his team in some corner of Qatar. Strictly speaking, after every World Cup and with exceptions during the 1990s, that has always been the case for contemporary Argentine football. The World Cup players that the Professional Soccer League will have – Franco Armani and Nicolás de la Cruz, for Uruguay, in River, and Alan Franco, for Ecuador, in Talleres-, were already there before.

The world of football is quoted in dollars – or in euros – and Argentina has a peculiarity that (also) explains the transfer market. Contracts must be in pesos and not in another currency. So that football player who agrees on his salary in – for example and in round figures – 10,000 dollars, will receive the equivalent in national currency according to the official exchange rate of the day. If you were the one at the end of this note, you would be signing the receipt for $1,798,000. If he received the green bills, the change in the illegal market would be $3,680,000, and that $1,882,000 difference is what prevents reinforcements from another hierarchy.

Brazilyou can “import” Brazilian soccer players from elite markets and pay them a salary of that level. Ecuadorwith its dollar economy, it is a magnet for footballers; Mexicowhen he pays he does it better than our football and also kilos It’s an option that can tip the scales against a considered offer from any Argentine team.

“Change complicates. Any market is more attractive than Argentina. Going to play anywhere, financially, is more attractive. For the average player today, any market is much more attractive than ours. If they stay, it’s because Argentine football gives you a certain prestige that no other league gives you. It is a showcase for a better sports career. But either side, from an economic point of view, is better”, graph Fabio Scandizzoplayer representative.

With all the restrictions of the Central Bank, which follows the indications of the IMF, the Argentine passes market moves at the pace imposed by the clubs themselves: some institutions have not yet been strengthened, others have received a flood of incorporations and the dynamic that prevails is similar to that of bartering, Never before have so many players moved from one team to another. Without arrivals from abroad, it is the internal market that moves.

Does anyone charge in dollars?

Some soccer players charge in dollars. The leaders consulted explain that it is “very difficult” or “impossible” for a foreigner to come to Argentine football and accept a stack of orange banknotes with the image of the hornero, our national bird. “Through agreements with foreign clubs, a type of engineering is possible that allows dollars to be brought abroad. It’s complicated and nothing more can be said“, apologized a Buenos Aires club executive familiar with the roller.

The only way to get dollars out of the country is to buy soccer players. Thus a foreign club sells to an Argentinian one: if the pass is for 10 dollars – again a roundabout example, even if absurd -, they do it for 20, half is for the pass and the rest constitutes the player’s salary. It’s a sort of first cousin triangulation of what was done in the 80s and 90s to evade taxes. But in this case there must be a commitment between the parties for the money to reach the agreed destination.

Who doesn’t like to pass left You have another option: MEP dollar. It has a similar price known as blue, but it’s legal. It is an exchange rate that is operated in the capital market: a bond is bought in pesos which is then sold in dollars. It’s the only thing that footballers accept, who no longer accept weighting limits. What were the caps? The top management fixed a symbolic amount in dollars, but paid in pesos with a ceiling: if the currency exceeded it, the exchange rate for the club remained the same.

Weights, weighed or triangulated

The inhibitions that weigh on some clubs also drag the market: a sale allows you to reimburse salaries and enter the open market. It happened to Gymwho fought for the last championship with union measures of his players and then lost the coach Nestore Gorosito in the middle of the preseason for non-payment. He had to get rid of the figure of him, German brahianso that the money enters, the block is unlocked and thus also able to strengthen.

Thus, the Drill he has remained one of the jewels of the domestic market. The other six incorporations of him are players released or on loan from other entities and none with the Uruguayan signing from which he arrived Wolf. Thus, the most outstanding of the last tournament becomes a difficult figure. In addition to German, rodriguez fleas Many wanted him and he is about to sign the contract with him Central Cordoba of Santiago del Estero.

The free throws Colonnow they will be for Ivan Tapiawhere it came from central barrackswhich in turn will return to the fields a Richard Centurionhanging Velez after being expelled from Saint Lawrence. In two paragraphs there are seven clubs and four players: a handrail of the same market.

What do the grownups do?

Mouth It has not yet disbursed a weight in incorporations. Riveralready insured Matías Kranevitter Already Ignacio Fernandez and here is the exception to what is seen in the market: the emotional plays a role – in both cases we are dealing with yields respectively at 29 and 33 years – and the currency exchange is a non-substantial detail. In the racing something like this happened: Maximilian Moralez came free to CNY of MLS, after raising five years in dollars.

Independent, a case apart among the greats. He brought about ten players, all from the local transfer market or for free. None with the weight of Moralez or Nacho Fernández or even Aleman or Pulga Rodríguez. Perhaps Rodrigo Rey, Martin Cauteruccio Y Maurice skin raise the bar among newcomers. Saint Lawrenceaustere: he brought the Chilean alex ibacache from Everton of his country.

“It is an atypical market in terms of duration and the way it is taking place. They are taking a lot of first contract players, young enough to do business afterwards, instead of those with experience and hierarchy: of those, very few signed ”, explains Scandizzo, the representative, to understand the phenomenon.

“Before it was always the opposite: first those in the hierarchy, the most experienced, and then the filler, the youngest, with little experience and less name. Perhaps we will see many players on the field that we do not know, similar to the pandemic ”, he predicts.