Is a football player worth �80million?

[Gromit]

Real Madrid have offered �80million for Ronaldo, and Manchester United have accepted.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams /m/man_utd/8094720.stm

Crazy money or worth every penny?

[biggerlonger]

Ronaldo for �80m

Newcastle football club for �100m

United should buy Newcastle

[Androcles]

Crazy Money! This is draining all the cash out of the game, as one can see with the problems with Sentanta. We need more money in at the grass roots of the game otherwise where will the young England stars of the future come from? We have a local Juniors club, which runs nearly 30 teams on a wing and a prayer, from age 5 to 19. I have no problem with players being paid well, but how do they spend the kind of money they are making. They could easily take less, have a fabulous life style and get some more money down where it is really needed.

Rant over!

[Julnar]

While I agree Ronaldo is an exceptionally gifted player and worth more than most other players, �80 million does seem a little excessive. It's sad that the top level of football bathes in these sums whereas the grass roots and even the lower leagues like Division 1 and 2 struggle to keep their heads above water.

[R1Geezer]

Market forces Gromit, anything is only worth what someone will pay for it. Presumably the buyer thinks it's worth it.

[youngmafbog]

Very true R1, just difficult to see how they calculate the worth

Alex F must be laughing his c*ck off

[Gromit]

Steve.5

Do you mean AIG, they are the shirt sponsors. Did you mean the Glaser Brothers who have a �700million loan that needs repaying?

[paraffin]

He's only worth as much as some idiots are mad enough to fork out for him.

[sqad617]

If you pay �80 million and through revenue, shirts etc he brings �100 million into the club......it is a good deal.

[Ric.ror]

To be honest I thought we would have got more - at least �100m - if Man City thought Kaka was worth that so was Ronaldo in copright alone!

[IrishHeart]

Sky news has just said Beckham was worth 400 million in shirt sales to Real