MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Barcelona vs Real Madrid: a derby with 1.5bn dollars on the field

Ronaldo and Messi, gladiators on modern times

Saturday’s derby between Spain’s top teams Barcelona and Real Madrid is more than a soccer match, not only because it will most probably decide who is the next champ of La Liga but also because the field will see a display of 1.474 billion dollars in players.

According to tranfersmarket.de the value of the Catalan team is estimated in 764 million dollars with Lionel Messi, and his 130 million dollars tag, the main star and the most expensive in the world.

However it should be pointed out that coach Joseph Guardiola will actually have a team valued at 697 million dollars because he won’t be counting with David Villa (46m dollars), Eric Abidal (13m) and freshman Andres Fontas (4.6m)

Real Madrid on the other hand, will have on the field 712 million dollars with Portugal born Cristiano Ronaldo, its best player and with a market value of 118 million dollars.

Given the absences in Barcelona, the Madrid team with coach Jose Mourinho will have a dearer team than that of his peer Guardiola.

Real Madrid currently leads in La Liga with 85 points, four more than Barcelona. If the derby goes for Real the lead will be seven points with only nine more to be played before the season is over.

But if Barcelona gives another shock-surprise, the difference drops to one point and will inject further speculation and nerves to Spain’s main football league.

The other great duel will be personal, between Messi and Ronaldo considered the world’s best players. The both have scored 41 goals but if all tournaments are considered (La Liga, Champions League, UEFA Super-cup, Spain’s Super-cup and the King’s Cup), Messi leads with 10 scores (63 from the Argentine and 53 from the Portuguese).

Regarding personal finances according to France Football, Messi the “flee” collected 43 million dollars in the 2011/12 season compared to Cristiano’s 38 million, a step below Davic Beckham with 41 million.

Messi’s difference is based on publicity contracts (27.5m) since Ronaldo has a higher contract with Real: 17m compared to 13.7m.

But Forbes puts Ronaldo ahead of Messi with 42m and 39m, based on 2011 revenue.

Finally even when Barcelona can be considered a stronger team on the field, the Madrid based Real is richer. In effect, according to Forbes, the meringue organization is valued at 1.877 billion dollars compared to the 1.307 billion for the Catalans.