No Champions League-No Problem!

The UEFA Champions League is one of the most prestigious football competitions in the football calendar. It is one completion that attracts the best of top European footballers, and no wonder most players would accept pay cuts to move to a club that offers them an opportunity to participate regularly.

Summer before last, one player that almost fought his club to a standstill because they couldn’t offer him Champions League footballs was Luis Suarez who has now moved to Barcelona. The fact he wanted to move to another Premier League club, Arsenal to actualize his dream shows how important playing in the competition is to top players.
Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger had on several occasions in the past reiterated the importance of qualifying for the group stages of the competition as one of the conditions for attracting big players. Of course, the Frenchman is not far from the truth; but something quite different and remarkable seems to have happened this summer.

In a bid to rebuild its team and get back to its glory days; the Manchester United hierarchy backed their manager with all the money needed to sign any player he wanted in the market. Though, the name of the club is one that rings a bell in the football world, not many of us thought that was enough to attract the big players; but we were wrong as United pulled all the stop to bring in players like Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao.

                   

So was it just the lure of the name that attracted both players to United or the big fat wages they have been offered by the English club? Falcao for one will earn a staggering £350,000 a week, while Angel Di Maria will also pocket £200,000 every week.

For Falcao, it is a strange move as the player has not featured in the Champions League since 2010. So what motivated this move from Monaco who will be playing in the premium competition this year to another that didn’t even qualify for the EUEFA Europa League?

Perhaps, the same question should be asked of Angel Di Maria who was in the Madrid Champions League winning team last season, but has now made the move to United.

In all of these, should we conclude that Champions League football is no longer a major factor to attract top European talents?