From Reuters:

BARCELONA, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Real Madrid’s strategy of spending huge sums on players is unsustainable as it is unlikely to generate enough income from TV rights, sponsorship and merchandising, according to a new study published on Tuesday.

Real spent 735 million euros ($1.1 billion) on 40 players between 2003 and 2009, according to the study by Jose Maria Gay, a professor of accounting at the University of Barcelona and an expert on soccer finances. (more…)

“The Corinthians striker wasn’t even playing in Sunday’s clash with Flamengo (he is recovering from his wrist injury and liposuction surgery), but home fans at the legendary Maracanã stadium devoted a large part of their collective energy to belittling the tubby Brazilian.

Flemengo fans welcomed him with a fetching pink banner that read “Ronaldo King of the Transvestites”.

(more…)

As we were watching the Cristiano Ronaldo X Real Madrid presentation the other day, the BP_TOW crew got caught up in an interesting conversation regarding his choice of the Number 9 shirt, the fact that the Original Ronaldo rocked it with the Original Galacticos, if the Portuguese International would go with CRonaldo and if not, whether supporters would buy the new kit or just recycle the old one.  Seems like we found an answer to at least one of those subjects…

(more…)

This runs for about 6 minutes so its a little on the longer side of things, but it’s definitely worth watching. It even features The Original Ronaldo, so that’s always a good thing. Enjoy.

We always see the big figures that these guys get in transfers and weekly salaries, and wonder how the hell do these clubs pay for this over and over again.. ..one report is projecting that Real will sale about a million C Ron replica jerseys by Christmas. You would think thats kindof crazy, but you never know… Becks sold 250k Galaxy jerseys before they were even revealed and 1mm+ in his first 6mo in Madrid. At about $80 bucks a jersey that would be a pretty good return on investment before he even hits the pitch

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Portugal’s soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo arrives at Mother Teresa airport near Tirana June 5, 2009. Albania will play against Portugal in a World Cup 2010 qualifying soccer match on Saturday

This picture at first glance just looks like a dude getting off a plane and looking to head to a limo to take him wherever he has to go, but take a good look. (more…)

The OG Ronaldo’s pimp hand is strong.  Lesson learned.