Football and marketing are closely intertwined, that’s why so many stars are tidbits not only because of their sports skills, but also thanks to their popularity among fans.It is enough to have a look at how the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo changed the position of Turin Juventus in social media. The number of subscribers and views increased by several million. It is obvious that the Portuguese’s personal fans continue to follow him now, when he is the member of the Old Lady. It is also confirmed by the fact that the first home game of Madrid Real set an anti-record in terms of attendance — the stadium was packed with less than 50% audience.

Juventus has received notable profits not only due to the increase in the number of subscribers, but also thanks to selling T-shirts with Ronaldo name on them. They were sold out in a blink of an eye. However, this is a good example of how the team won from such a transfer. We are not taking into consideration that during the first games Cristiano did not realize his full potential. However, it can be clearly seen that he is doing his best, and results will definitely follow.

Soccer stars have become a real goal for the giants who aspire not only to add a strong player to their lineup, but also to get a media person whose T-shirts are well sold. Such situation in the team sport is unlikely to lead to anything good, because it is not tennis or any other individual discipline. In football, mutual understanding on the field is important, not the number of stars playing on it.

Marketing Success of Clubs

When it comes to the marketing success of clubs, Manchester United comes to mind instantly. Here, we can give an example of Angel Di Maria, who was introduced to much fanfare, and fans had high hopes for him. On the field, the Argentinean showed himself extremely unconvincingly, but quickly redeemed his transfer thanks to T-shirts selling. MU had the similar situation with Alexis Sanchez, who can not find his game yet, but his merchandise is very popular.

It seems that the management of the Red Devils is quite satisfied with this development of events, while the results on the football field leave much to be desired. However, there are a lot of examples of how the player’s transfer was successful for both the media and the sport. Among the latter we can name the following transfers:

•        Neymar;
•        Mbappe;
•        Salah.

They fully justified the money spent and helped their teams to make profit on the related merchandise. However, the destructive influence of the market is becoming more and more noticeable, therefore we run the risk of facing a situation where clubs will not buy players, but stars for the media.