Real Madrid football club is easily one of the biggest soccer teams in the world at the moment. And that is not saying any thing new. Real Madrid has always been a massive soccer club with a stadium that has a capacity of about 90,000 and some of the most dedicated fans in world soccer.

Recently, the Madrid club paid a record 80 million pounds to sign the Portuguese winger, Cristiano Ronaldo. It was a record fee. The highest fee paid for a soccer player before Ronaldo's transfer was 47 million pounds. Again, it was Real Madrid that paid out that record sum for the French maestro, Zinedine Zidane. It is also worth remembering that before the Zindane transfer, Real Madrid had paid a world record 37 million pounds to sign Luiz Figo from Barcelona football club. Clearly, signing soccer players for record sums of money are nothing new to Real Madrid.

Now, there are those who believe that 80 million pounds sterling is too much money to pay for just one soccer player. But then, Cristiano Ronaldo is not just your average soccer player. He is the current FIFA World Footballer of the Year. He is also the reigning European footballer of the year. In the 2007/2008 soccer season, he scored an incredible 48 goals. That is how good Ronaldo is. Meanwhile, he is just about 25 years old and he still has many years of soccer in him.

So, is it right for Real Madrid to spend 80 million pounds on one player? The correct answer is that it depends on why Madrid decided to buy Ronaldo in the first place. Remember that soccer is, first and foremost, a big business. Therefore, the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Perez was not doing a favor to Manchester United when he elected to sign Ronaldo for 80 million pounds. He must have had his reason for doing so.

In any case, Real Madrid needs a player in the caliber of Cristiano Ronaldo to bring back the glorious days when Madrid was the undisputed master of European soccer. Again, you have to add the fact that Real Madrid will stand to gain a lot from Ronaldo's transfer from the sale of Ronaldo jerseys and other lucrative adverts and endorsement deals.

Finally, we all know how soccer trophies work in favor of soccer teams. Just think, if Real Madrid is able to win both the La Liga and the UEFA Champions league trophy in May next year that will be worth over 100 million pounds to the team. Winning both trophies will also boost Real Madrid's share of television money which is quite high already.

All considered, it would not be fair say that Real Madrid was wrong to pay 80 million pounds for one player. You have to look at the big picture. Okay, 80 million pounds may sound like a lot of money to pay for only one player. However, Real Madrid president, Fiorentino Perez, has his reasons for taking such a bold step. At the end of the day, the record transfer fee paid for Ronaldo may work in the favor of Real Madrid.

Learn more about this author, Emmanuel Osondu.
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