Cristiano Ronaldo, Not Gareth Bale, Deserves Record for Most Expensive Transfer

The biggest transfer of this summer has finally come to its end, with Gareth Bale moving to join Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid, as was confirmed by Tottenham's official Twitter account on Sunday:

What's more, NBC's Joe Prince-Wright has tweeted to say that the fee paid for Bale's signature is €100 million (£85 million):

Such a fee makes the Welshman the most expensive player in football history, just about overcoming the £80 million fee that prised Cristiano Ronaldo away from Manchester United in 2009.

However, has the 24-year-old Bale truly warranted such a prestigious tag? Something that one would like to think equates to one of, if not the best player in the world?

While his contributions in last season’s Premier League were vast, it’s only right that Real’s already-established hero assumes such a position, irrespective of how bloated the market may have become in the past four years.

While completely hypothetical, how much would Ronaldo be worth if he had pulled off all of his Manchester United achievements four years later? What if he was playing in the same division as Bale for the past couple of years?

Would the pair then be compared to one another in terms of pricing? One would have to say that the Portuguese international would still emerge as by far the superior of the two.

Nik Postinger shared the sentiment of Barcelona legend Hristo Stoichkov to illustrate such a point on Twitter:

The 2012-13 campaign was by far the most successful of Bale’s career to date, in which the attacker produced 26 goals and 15 assists across all competitions.

In his most fruitful season in England, the 2007-08 term, Ronaldo was near enough the same age as Bale but still managed to top those numbers immensely, registering 42 goals in his Premier League and Champions League displays.

Granted, a disruption caused by a mountain of transfer speculation meant that the forward’s 2008-09 campaign wasn’t quite as prolific, but Ronaldo still managed 26 goals and 11 assists for the Red Devils.

What’s also important to consider is that Ronaldo was already part of a well-established world power at the peak of his English reign, still managing to shine amongst the considerable talent at Old Trafford.

For Bale, a move to the Spanish capital would mean an increase in the competition around him, but also the expectation to produce in the same quantity and quality as he has at White Hart Lane.

This is something that nobody can be quite assured of just yet.

It’s only inevitable that as football progresses as a business, the average and highest transfer fees see a steady rise in correlation with one another.

That being said, being regarded as the most expensive player ever is a hallowed honour that needs careful consideration as opposed to knee-jerk spending in light of several good seasons.

Ronaldo had the potential to command the title at the time of his transfer whole-heartedly, whereas the fact that we even debate Bale’s worth shows that he’s not quite as deserving for the same to be bestowed upon him.

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