Álvaro Carreras is positioned as one of Benfica's biggest sales, the European club with the best revenue balance on the continent.
The sale of Álvaro Carreras is the latest to be made from the European football goldmine. Benfica has become the selling club par excellence , and the management carried out from Lisbon is admired worldwide. Because the Eagles have exceeded €800 million in the last ten years of a positive balance, that is, the difference between income from sales (more than €1.3 billion) and expenses (€625 million) from transfers, according to data from Transfermarket.
Carreras is the best example of the "made in Benfica" operation. A young player with potential who joins Da Luz, develops, gains experience in major competitions, and ends up being targeted by some big club that has to dig deep into its pockets to sign him. If we add to this approach the Portuguese club's enormous youth system, which constantly produces elite-level talent, the result is a massive turnover in sales revenue.
Names like Joao Félix (127 million to Atlético), Enzo Fernández (121 to Chelsea), Darwin (85 to Liverpool), Ruben Dias (71 to City) ... If the first is an example of a rough diamond polished in the lower categories, the case of Enzo, for example, was after a bet of more than 40 million that he ended up selling for three times more. Or Darwin, for whom they paid 34 to Almería and multiplied his value on the way to Liverpool. Carreras is the latest: from the approximately six million he paid to United to the 50 he receives from Madrid. "Development and maximization of talent" is the Benfica motto.
"Portuguese football can't retain stars, which is why clubs have specialized in talent detection and multi-million-dollar sales," explain Portuguese clubs, who place four of their teams among the top ten sellers in recent years. Sporting and Porto's totals approach €400 million, while Braga's total is over €250 million.
In addition to the Portuguese clubs, among the top spots are other classic sellers such as Ajax, who have traditionally supplied the major leagues, and who in recent years have transferred Antony (95 to United), De Jong (86 to Barça), De Light (85 to Juve)... to earn more than a billion and a positive balance of more than 500. The Austrian RB Salzburg, the Dutch PSV and the Croatian Dinamo Zagreb are also in a top-10 of sellers in which only the French Lille and Lyon are members of the considered 'big five' leagues.
A trend that continues in the table if we expand to the top 25. There's no sign of the Premier League, Borussia Dortmund is the only German club , there's plenty of South American football (Palmeiras, Sao Paulo, River Plate, Santos, Paranaense, etc.), and only one Spanish team, Villarreal. The Castellón team is the best example of a competitive and profitable team. This season, they transferred Baena to Atlético Madrid (42 million) and Barry to Everton (30 million). In the last decade, many talents have improved and left for large sums: Bakambu, Bailly, Nico Jackson, Pau Torres, Sorloth, etc.
Best balance sheets in the last 10 years
1. SL Benfica (Portugal) 819 million
2. Ajax Amsterdam (Netherlands) 505.
3 RB Salzburg (Austria) 402.
4. Sporting Lisbon (Portugal) 399.
5. FC Porto (Portugal) 372.
6. LOSC Lille (France) 371.
7. Sporting Braga (Portugal) 261.
8. PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) 258.
9. Olympique Lyon (France) 255.
24. Villarreal (Spain) 150.
The Premier doesn't look after money
The opposite is true of the clubs that have done the worst business deals between signings and sales. And the Premier League takes the cake here. Furthermore, the relationship between money invested and titles is not proportional. Chelsea, Manchester United, and Manchester City occupy the top three spots with over a billion lost. Only PSG, fourth, reaches those figures. Milan and Juventus are the Italian representatives at the top of a table that includes Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal.
Real Madrid, down 399 after the investment in Carreras, and Barça, down 349, are moving in similar numbers , but far from the Premier League's millions. To give you an idea, of the 25 teams with the worst record, 12 are English, and there are fewer teams from Spain (just the big two) than from Saudi Arabia, since in addition to Al Hilal, there are Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr and Al Ahli, the new booming Arab football club.
Worst balance sheets in the last 10 years
1. Chelsea (England) -1,321.
2. Manchester United (England) -1,318.
3. Manchester City (England) -1,148.
4 PSG (France) -1.017.
5 Arsenal (England) -931.
6 Tottenham (England) -820.
7 AC Milan (Italy) -609.
8 Juventus (Italy) -606.
9. Newcastle (England) -602.
10. Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia) -577
14. Real Madrid (Spain) -399.
16. Real Madrid (Spain) -349.