With the excellent performance of the World Cup, the World Cup Golden Glove Award winner Courtois eventually moved to Real Madrid. Real Madrid, which has been bleeding a lot this summer, has finally ushered in their first big name signing. After years of fruitless pursuit of homegrown goalkeeper De Gea, Real Madrid took advantage of Courtois's insistence on refusing to renew his contract and would bring him in at a low price of 35 million euros with only one year left in his contract. Chelsea, which was ill-prepared, eventually brought in Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper Kopa for 80 million euros. In this transfer game, the first official announcement was Athletic Bilbao, followed by Real Madrid and Chelsea also officially announced the new main goalkeeper.
On 19 July this year, Liverpool brought in Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson from Rome, successfully breaking the goalkeeper transfer record held by Buffon for 17 years. Kopa's transfer of termination once again set a new record, this time with an interval of only 20 days. The reason for this sky-high transfer is that chelsea are not prepared for Courtois' departure under the premise of shortening the Premier League transfer period. But looking at the essence of the phenomenon aside, the scarcity of talent in football today is still the main reason.
While we can't deny that Athletic Bilbao has been selling players in a severance payment because of its national policy, half a season ago, Kopa was just a player with an estimated price of only 20 million euros in the transfer market. In the past half a season, although Kopa has maintained his performance, he has not played in the World Cup, he is only a substitute goalkeeper for the national team, which does not meet the "premium principle" of the World Cup.
Since City bought Ederson for $36 million in last summer window, the goalkeeper has also fallen prey to "inflation". AC Milan's young goalkeeper Donarumma was doubled in value, but was forced to keep by Milan. Since the second reform of UEFA, the level of the five major leagues has long ceased to be fierce, and the fiery League Cup in the 90s has become a chicken rib competition Europa League, and the league monopoly situation is relatively serious, with fewer strong teams and less competitiveness. In this case, there is a shortage of talent in many positions, and eventually it has penetrated into the goalkeeper. At the same time, the commercialization of professional leagues is becoming more and more serious, and the top leagues are increasingly impatient with the cultivation of young players, and many players are short-lived because they cannot integrate into new teams in a short period of time. Chelsea's midfield star Bakayoko, who was brought in for €44 million last season, is one example, and the latter is likely to leave the team. Kopa may have joined Kovacic, who left the club because of a long-term substitute at Real Madrid and a desire for more playing time.
A better example, Donnarumma is not alone. The reason for the donarumma premium is that Italy, which was once known for its rich goalkeeper, has not produced a good goalkeeper for many years. Over the past decade, Whether it is Amelia, Marchetti, Sirigu and others who have been pinned high hopes, they have not been able to stand out, so Buffon has been difficult to replace. A better proof is that the Bundesliga, which is better protected by the "50 +1" policy, has also seen a "goalkeeper panic". The reason for this is not that Neuer's injury caused the German team to suffer the "shame of the century", but that in the Bundesliga in the past season, no goalkeeper under the age of 24 has been able to participate in at least half of the Bundesliga matches, which has never been seen before.
Therefore, The (terrible) premium of Kopa is not just a temporary foothold for Chelsea, but also an inevitable development of the market. Chelsea are not unprepared for Courtois' departure, as Oblak, Pickford, Donnarumma, including Allison, who was brought in earlier by Liverpool, have all passed on the scandal with Chelsea, but none of the teams are willing to sell the goalkeeper. Even Atletico, known for training goalkeepers, are no longer willing to take risks.
This seemingly problematic transfer of 80 million termination funds is actually a greater risk. Courtois, who insisted on leaving the team, left the team for 35 million euros, and Kopa in 1994 was only 2 years younger, but neither fame (commercial value) nor strength can be compared with the World Cup Golden Glove. Whether Kopa will be a top goalkeeper in two years is not yet known, but Kopa is not yet a world-class goalkeeper. And the transfer market frequently appears in liquidated damages to buy, such inflation, is it really a good thing for the football market?
Forced to buy with no price and no market, it is presumably only more and more in the future. And Real Madrid, which does not lack a goalkeeper, but to make the hero Navas a substitute, it is worth mentioning that as early as the World Cup, Real Madrid introduced 19-year-old Ukrainian genius goalkeeper Lunin for 14 million euros, and there is no talent reserve in the position of goalkeeper, such a purposeful and chaotic purchase, compared with the rational operation of Real Madrid in the past few years, it is really difficult to see through.
Such a transfer is not worth rejoicing; such a topicality does not make much sense. In contrast, I hope there are more teams brave enough to develop goalkeepers.