Record high: Real Madrid's wage bill exceeds expectations
Two seasons without a single trophy left Real Madrid hungry. They responded with huge investment in last summer's transfer market.
The newspaper Sport reported that president Florentino Pérez spent generously, with Dean Huijsen, Bernardo Silva, Ibrahima Konaté, Carlos Espí, Marc Cucurella and Dumfries all arriving in the Madrid dressing room.
Those signings, combined with renewed contracts for key men such as Vinícius Júnior, pushed the club's wage bill sharply higher.
According to the specialist website 2Playbook, Real Madrid's wage bill this season stands at 707 million euros once player and staff salaries are counted.
That figure is the highest in the club's history. It also closes in on the record held by Paris Saint-Germain.
The total swallows 57% of Real Madrid's turnover and 50% of their revenues, keeping them within UEFA's limits and regulations.
Real Madrid expect to bring in revenues of 1.405 billion euros this season, another record. Florentino Pérez and his board anticipate profits of around 14 million euros.
Much of that money flows from the Bernabéu, which should generate 420 million for the club through fan memberships, ticket sales, the museum, the VIP areas and events such as the American football league match staged yesterday, Sunday.
Player sales also stand out among the revenue sources, bringing in 155 million euros. The bulk of it comes from academy graduates such as Nico Paz, Jacobo Ortega, Víctor Muñoz, Gonzalo García and César Palacios.
The 2Playbook report adds that 44.4 million euros of the 707 million total covers the technical staff and the basketball team's players, while the women's football team accounts for 8.5 million euros.
The women's team ran up losses of 785 thousand euros last season, and its budget for the current campaign has climbed to 16 million euros.
Over in the basketball section, the budget for this season has risen to 67 million euros. Losses there reached 33 million euros last season.
Real Madrid's members will have to ratify all of these accounts at the general assembly scheduled for next Saturday.
