The price tag almost always matters. Ask Eden Hazard, who in 2019 became the most expensive purchase in the history of Real Madrid, a club who have pierced the €100 million barrier for a single transfer fee more than most.
Hazard cost that much. He is currently unemployed, after four years in the capital of Spain spent looking increasingly burdened by the vast money that had been spent – with little yield – on him.
The price tag always seemed to follow around Trevor Francis, whose death at the age of 69 was announced on Monday. In the affectionate and admiring obituaries of Francis, the fact that he fetched a record-breaking price during his career is usually in the foreground.
Francis made a landmark transfer 40 years before Hazard, as the first footballer to move for £1 million when he joined Nottingham Forest, then a startlingly upwardly mobile team, from Birmingham City. It set a British record. He was to score the decisive goal in a European Cup final barely four months later, collect a second winners' medal in the same competition and played more than 50 times for England.
Yet there lingered around him the idea that he never consistently attained the peaks, the prolonged superstardom forecast for him first as a young tyro and then as the bearer of that £1 million price tag.
Take away the fee, and Francis might have been judged more generously. After all, he played the figurehead role in one of the most captivating fairytales in the story of the European Cup – now the Champions League – with Forest having added him to a squad that had only been promoted from England’s second tier less than two years before Francis headed in the only goal of the 1979 final against Malmo.
But the hefty fee meant he was viewed through a distinct lens than the lionised journeymen Forest players who upped their games and the inspirational manager, Brian Clough, who guided the so-called “Forest Miracle”.
Over his career as a striker – one intrepid enough to play in five different leagues, including Italy’s Serie A – and as a manager who enjoyed significant highlights in charge of Sheffield Wednesday, Francis often found himself obliged to reflect on his £1 million milestone and how the finances of elite football had swelled since one million in sterling seemed such an extravagant sum.
According to the Bank of England’s index of long-term inflation, £1 million in 1979 would buy you the equivalent of £4.7 million worth of goods or services in 2023. In the hyperinflationary economy of the world’s most popular sport, £4.7 million of today’s UK money buys you less than a 20th of Declan Rice, who this month set a new high for a British transfer with his £100 million move from West Ham United to Arsenal.
Rice is 24, as Francis was in early 1979. Rice is a central midfielder; Francis was an electric striker, a specialism generally valued more highly than mere midfield anchors.
Francis was to keep his value, too. Manchester City paid Forest around £1.2 million for him in 1981. In 2021, City would have needed to write 83 cheques of £1.2 million to buy Jack Grealish, City’s record transfer to date.
On the day Francis passed away, a bid of €300 million was being put to Paris Saint-Germain by Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia for Kylian Mbappe. Were that transfer to go through – Mbappe, in dispute with PSG, has his heart set not on Saudi Arabia’s Pro League but on Real Madrid – it would set a new global record, eclipsing the €222 million PSG paid Barcelona for Neymar in 2017.
The Francis legacy has many heirs, and one of them on a parallel path to his own. Francis had been a prodigy, given his first-team debut at Birmingham City at the age of 16. He held the record as that club’s youngest debutant until 2019, when it was overtaken by a dashing young midfielder named Jude Bellingham. Bellingham has since hurtled upwards in the same way Francis did, all the way, at the tender age of 19 to a €103 million move from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid earlier this summer.
On the day Francis, the precocious Birmingham City boy, the setter of legacy records, died, Bellingham, once of Birmingham, was making his debut for Madrid in a preseason friendly victory over AC Milan.
“It is rare to come across players of this quality,” beamed Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti about his performance. “He’s fantastic, and gives us something different.”
Not so long ago, Madrid felt the same of Hazard. Bellingham is aware of the precedent, the expectations, the burdens of his fee. But if he helps, as Francis did, to supply his new club with a European Cup in his first season, the weight of the pricetag will feel a little lighter.
Even if he does not, he can be sure that, soon enough, someone else will arrive at Madrid for an even bigger sum, because the game’s long inflationary spiral shows no sign of slowing.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
'Gold'
Director:Anthony Hayes
Stars:Zaf Efron, Anthony Hayes
Rating:3/5
Name: Colm McLoughlin
Country: Galway, Ireland
Job: Executive vice chairman and chief executive of Dubai Duty Free
Favourite golf course: Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club
Favourite part of Dubai: Palm Jumeirah
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
The National in Davos
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.
Scoreline:
Everton 4
Richarlison 13'), Sigurdsson 28', Digne 56', Walcott 64'
Manchester United 0
Man of the match: Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton)
Chatham House Rule
A mark of Chatham House’s influence 100 years on since its founding, was Moscow’s formal declaration last month that it was an “undesirable
organisation”.
The depth of knowledge and academics that it drew on
following the Ukraine invasion had broadcast Mr Putin’s chicanery.
The institute is more used to accommodating world leaders,
with Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher among those helping it provide
authoritative commentary on world events.
Chatham House was formally founded as the Royal Institute of
International Affairs following the peace conferences of World War One. Its
founder, Lionel Curtis, wanted a more scientific examination of international affairs
with a transparent exchange of information and ideas.
That arena of debate and analysis was enhanced by the “Chatham
House Rule” states that the contents of any meeting can be discussed outside Chatham
House but no mention can be made identifying individuals who commented.
This has enabled some candid exchanges on difficult subjects
allowing a greater degree of free speech from high-ranking figures.
These meetings are highly valued, so much so that
ambassadors reported them in secret diplomatic cables that – when they were
revealed in the Wikileaks reporting – were thus found to have broken the rule. However,
most speeches are held on the record.
Its research and debate has offered fresh ideas to
policymakers enabling them to more coherently address troubling issues from climate
change to health and food security.
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
RESULTS
2pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (Dirt) 1,000m
Winner: AF Mozhell, Saif Al Balushi (jockey), Khalifa Al Neyadi (trainer)
2.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Majdi, Szczepan Mazur, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
3pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m
Winner: AF Athabeh, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel.
3.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m
Winner: AF Eshaar, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi
4pm: Gulf Cup presented by Longines Prestige (PA) Dh150,000 (D) 1,700m
Winner: Al Roba’a Al Khali, Al Moatasem Al Balushi, Younis Al Kalbani
4.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh40,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Apolo Kid, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muahiri
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
The specs: 2018 Mazda CX-5
Price, base / as tested: Dh89,000 / Dh130,000
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder
Power: 188hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 251Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.1L / 100km
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Seven tips from Emirates NBD
1. Never respond to e-mails, calls or messages asking for account, card or internet banking details
2. Never store a card PIN (personal identification number) in your mobile or in your wallet
3. Ensure online shopping websites are secure and verified before providing card details
4. Change passwords periodically as a precautionary measure
5. Never share authentication data such as passwords, card PINs and OTPs (one-time passwords) with third parties
6. Track bank notifications regarding transaction discrepancies
7. Report lost or stolen debit and credit cards immediately
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
