"100 million euro signings to be thing of the past"

The signings of more than 100 million euros which were talked about in the last transfer windows when mentioning Neymar Jr moving to Barcelona will be "a thing of the past" after the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus, the Italian economist Marco Bellinazzo said in an interview.

It is a common sensation among the Serie A clubs that the next few transfer windows will see more swap deals and less multi million pound signings: a radical change from how football was before the health crisis.

The inflation in footballer's signings came after PSG paid Barca 222 million euros for Neymar and Bellinazzo, economist and journalist of 'Il Sole 24 Ore', says it will become a thing of the past. 

After the multi million euro operation involving Neymar and PSG, followed by signing of Kylian Mbappe just a few days later for 180 million euros (between loan and purchase), football registered a chain reaction which saw the cost of footballers sky-rocket.

Barcelona invested more than 100 million euros in Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann and Philippe Coutinho, Atletico Madrid paid Benfica 127 milliones for the Portuguese Joao Felix; and Juventus broke the spending record in Italian football by spending 112 million on signing Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. 

A phenomenon which according to Bellinazzo belongs to the past, after the coronavirus pandemic brought football to a halt.

"The bubble generated by Neymar's signing for PSG will burst. The inflation of the salaries seen after Neymar's operation to PSG will be a distant memory. It will be difficult to see those figures again," the expert told 'EFE'.

"100 million for Dembele will not be spent again. It was estimated recently that player's value will be reduced by at least 30%. If all the clubs review their accounts, we will struggle to see this expenditure again," he added.