By Paul Haven
MADRID — Unprecedented spending on Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka has Real Madrid's opponents grumbling the team is trying to buy a championship, economists warning of ruin and complaints that the club's US$223 million moves this week are an insult to people in a country suffering severe financial hardship.
The club says high-cost players are the price of greatness and claims it will get the investment back and then some when television and marketing deals are factored in.
The deals - $92 million paid to AC Milan for Kaka and a stratospheric $131 million promised to Manchester United for Ronaldo - were the first moves made by Real Madrid's new president Florentino Perez.
Perez made a name for himself with similarly eye-popping transfers during a previous stint as head of the club earlier this decade, including tens of millions of dollars for "Galacticos" David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane.
"Many believe that the amounts of money being spent on soccer are so disproportionate as to be unjustifiable in these moments of economic crisis when millions of people are out of work," the paper said. "A great team cannot be built with a (cheque) book."
"What is more obscene, buying the two greatest players in the world whose presence is going to bring the team a lot of money in return, or spending a similar amount on mediocre players who add nothing, which is what Real Madrid has done over the past few years?" Segurola said.
"We are spending the money because it is worth it. We are spending it because we will make this money back, and make it back with interest," Valdano said. "Signing these types of players means that our sponsorship, television and sportswear contracts will rise spectacularly."
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