Transfers

Quick, who’s the most expensive transfer of the January window so far? You should know this — it’s the $75 million Chelsea paid Borussia Dortmund for Christian Pulisic. Now what about the second-most expensive? Any ideas? It’s the $41 million AC Milan paid Flamengo for 21-year-old Brazilian Lucas Paquetá.

Every child dreams of becoming the next Lionel Messi, and I don’t think that should be discouraged. However, it might not be a bad bit of parenting to tell your children that it’s OK to aim for the next Maxwell, Alexander Hleb, Aleix Vidal, Thomas Vermaelen, Paulinho or Kevin-Prince Boateng as well — that’s probably the surest way of representing the Blaugrana as a professional.

These are the somewhat old, somewhat weird transfer dealings of the five-time European champions, and in a strange way, they make perfect sense.

On Saturday, 28-year-old Argentine forward Emiliano Sala confirmed his $20 million transfer from Ligue 1 side Nantes to Premier League strugglers Cardiff City. The transfer made Sala the Welsh club’s record signing. 

“It gives me great pleasure and I can’t wait to start training, meet my new teammates and get down to work,” said Sala when announcing his move. 

According to the latest reports, Mario Balotelli is on the verge of joining Marseille from Nice in Ligue 1. Despite the timing being pretty perfect to join Major League Soccer, it’s not happening. We’re just as disappointed as you are. 

With Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Balotelli all in MLS, we could’ve replayed our own version of Euro 2012.  

You know the case isn’t closed until Zlatan Ibrahimovic has had his say, and that’s exactly what’s happened in the war of words between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi regarding the “challenge” that the Portuguese issued to the Argentine to join him in Italian football. 

With the first pick of the 2019 MLS Draft, FC Cincinnati takes … a timeout. 

As if you needed any more proof of the superfluous nature of the MLS SuperDraft these days, expansion club FC Cincinnati needed to take a timeout before making the first pick of the 2019 draft on Friday in Chicago — not to mention the quirk of even being able to call a timeout. 

The Diego Lainez transfer is complete. And he’s headed to Spain.

The exciting 18-year-old winger made the move from Club América to Real Betis on Thursday. The LaLiga club will pay América a reported $16 million for Lainez’s services.

Valencia has confirmed that forward Michy Batshuayi will end his loan early, sending him back to London at the end of the month, which could prove crucial for the Blues’ title run this season.

While serving his first loan in Borussia Dortmund during the second half of 2017-18, the Belgian scored seven goals in just 10 Bundesliga games. He was then shipped to Spain to play for Valencia last August, but he could not find the same magic.

Real Madrid doesn’t like losing players for cheap. Because of the club’s massive history in world football and its financial muscle, the players Los Blancos bring in are meant to be world-class. Apart from Real's huge wage bill and transfer budget, the amazing part of player contracts at the club are the release clauses, and young players like Brahim Diaz are no exception.