Page 65 - Soccer360 Issue 107

his performances marked him out as a highly sought after player heading into the summer transfer window Manchester United were one of the teams convinced by his talent and they swooped quickly, splashing out a fee
of €42.5 million for the Dutchman’s services. The signing heralded the beginning of a new recruitment policy at United, whose transfer plans this summer fall under the control of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who bought a 27.7% stake in the Red Devils last winter, and newly appointed sporting director Dan Ashworth.
Ratcliffe’s strategy for the fallen giants is to sign young and emerging talent instead of spending huge and inflated transfer fees and wages on older, big-name players who might be heading into the twilight of their careers, with Edinson Cavani and Casemiro among several recent examples. Zirkzee falls into the bracket of up-and-coming potential that is under the age of 25 and is someone to build the attack around along with Danish international Rasmus Hojlund.
What can United fans expect from their
new signing? Zirkzee is 6”4 yet has the tidy ball control and dribbling ability of a more diminutive playmaker rather than a typical run-of-the-mill target man. The former Bayern Munich youth team product likes
to drop deep, get on the ball, and pick out intricate passes or attempt to beat his man while also being capable of using his huge frame to hold the ball up and be a danger in the air. The Dutchman recorded an average of 4.3 dribble attempts a game, just behind the likes of Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Matias Soule at Frosinone in the Serie A charts.
The 24-year-old, who made his debut for
the Netherlands at Euro 2024 after being drafted into the squad as a late replacement, will be relied upon by Man Utd to give a
new dimension to a team that struggled
in all departments last season. His range of attributes will be a major asset to go with the pace of their other forward options, so he’ll certainly be one to watch.
SOCCER360 63
LEFT:
Amadou Onana of Aston Villa
RIGHT:
Joshua Zirkzee played a big part of getting Bologna FC into the Champions league
PORTFOLIO POWER
Ciro Di Brita discusses the growing trend of multi-club ownership and the impact it is having on player transfers.
The multi-club ownership in football model has come to
increased prominence in recent years due in part to the
League Cup without major sanctions. Another huge reason foinr 1t9h55e appeal
of the multi-club model for prospective owners is the ability to operate in different markets like Europe, Asia, and the Americas while having easy access to emerging talent from those regions that can then feed into one main team playing in a major European league. Arguably the most notable owners in the multi-club model are those of the City Football Group which controls Manchester City, New York City FC, Melbourne City, Girona, Palermo, and Troyes among others - and Red Bull who can boast of having RB Leipzig, Red Bull Salzburg, New York Red Bulls, and Red Bull Bragatino in Brazil on their books.
But we are seeing many more examples spring up across Europe. In the Premier League alone, new Manchester United minority shareholder Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group have stakes in two other clubs. Nottingham Forest’s Evangelos Marinakis also owns Olympiakos, Brighton owner Tony Bloom holds a stake
at Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise, and Bournemouth chief Bill Foley is involved at Scottish Premiership club Hibernian. Even
this summer, Liverpool owners the Fenway Sports Group were
in talks to purchase financially troubled Bordeaux, while Roma’s ruling Friedkin family saw a bid to add Everton to their portfolio fall through. So far, these clubs under a multiple ownership model are free to send players between themselves for fees that may not be considered market valuee. For example, the City Football Group oversaw the transfer of Savinho to Man City for €25m from French club Troyes this summer. Last year one of the hottest up-and-coming names in football Benjamin Sesko left RB Salzburg for RB Leipzig for a relatively cheap fee of €24m.
Until now clubs under the same ownership have been able
to transfer players between themselves either on loan or outright which raised concerns from competitors about the revenue streams these transactions generate, and from a wider perspective, sporting integrity.
The Premier League recently changed their rules surrounding inflated values of deals between clubs under the same ownership as well as considering banning loan transfers between those clubs. The danger from a financial fair play angle is the transfer of players between clubs under the same umbrella for a higher market value that then adds a fiscal surplus in the books and circumnavigates the rules on spending more than
the club generates. A crackdown on these loopholes is likely to be imminent for the sake of fairness, although, appeals and legal proceedings will surely follow if wide scale bans on transfers between teams owned by the same investors come into effect.
precarious financial state of the game outside of the European
very first giants, who despite recording losses each yearChcaamnpionps erate
UEFA has
come a long
way since
Real Madrid won the