While the European clubs battle over sought after players, Sevilla continue to do their business in the transfer market quietly and excellently.
Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo commonly known as ‘Monchi’, the Sevilla Director of Football is now fairly well known after spending years being the ‘behind the scenes’ man at Seville. At a point a few months back, it seemed certain that he would leave. Manchester United, PSG and AC Milan were clubs that were looking to bring him in, but Sevilla stood firm and told him that he would have to see out his contract. It’s possible that this will represent a landmark point in Sevilla’s history as their club looks to continue to grow.
Monchi was appointed in 2000 after Sevilla got relegated from the top division and were in dire need of an overhaul. The former goalkeeper, himself a product of the club’s youth academy was asked to transform the team's youth system and implement a comprehensive scouting network both inside and outside Spain.
Over the course of the next decade and more, Monchi has excelled in both tasks. A series of footballing stars came through the Rojiblancos youth setup (Diego Capel, Alberto Moreno, Jesús Navas, Antonio Puerta, Sergio Ramos, José Antonio Reyes and many more), and he also established a network of 700 scouts around the world.
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The scouting network showed their finesse and excellence when you consider the profits he made on players like Adriano, Dani Alves, Júlio Baptista, Federico Fazio, Seydou Keita and Ivan Rakitic in a profit total that nears € 200 million.
The most recent players to depart for significant sums have been Carlos Bacca, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Aleix Vidal and Grzegorz Krychowiak for a total of €107 million. How much were they signed for? A paltry total of € 19 million.
This isn’t to say that Sevilla are merely a club that handpicks the most promising players and sells them on for a huge profit. They have also competed quite magnificently both domestically and in European Competition. Considering the financial and sporting might of Barcelona and Real Madrid, and the emergence of Atletico as a tenacious winning machine, Sevilla have consistently emerged as the best of the rest.
Their success in the Europa League has been remarkable and unprecedented as well as they are the current holders and have won the trophy 3 consecutive times now. The fact that this success now puts them directly into the UEFA Champions League is now an added bonus and grants them additional funds to take their club to the next level.
Every year, Sevilla is forced to part with some of it’s best players and this year with the departures of Ever Banega and Krychowiak has been no different. But Sevilla have moved swiftly. and the arrivals of Franco Vazquez and Ganso represent excellent business.
Signed for a total fee of around €25 million, both players should have had a line of clubs battling for their signature. Vazquez did draw interest from Milan and several Premier League clubs, but Sevilla moved the quickest. Vazquez has had a couple of excellent seasons in Serie A and has shown his technical abilities consistently for a struggling team. The Italian was the division’s top assist provider in the 2014-15 season and his next season wasn’t any less impressive in a year that Palermo had to fight for their survival and ultimately got relegated.
Meanwhile, Paulo Henrique Ganso, a player that was once considered Brazil’s hottest property along with Neymar has also finally arrived on the European shores. Ganso struggled to live up to his early hype and went under the radar for a while, but Sevilla clearly think he is now at the right stage of his career to transition to a higher level, and at €10 million, he represents quite a bargain.
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Even Joaquin Correa, the Sampdoria starlet who has shown plenty of attacking promise at 21 years old has been snared by the Spanish club. His attacking stats rank him as one of the most promising youngsters playing in the top European league alongside players like Kingsley Coman and Anthony Martial, and when you consider the valuation of those two French stars, Correa has been signed for peanuts.
For a club that was in financial crisis, Sevilla have set an example for clubs all around the world in how to setup outstanding scouting networks, make enormous profits off players and win trophies at the same time. For their next ascent, the sky is the limit.
