Soccer Stars Are on Display

When Chelsea paid Olympique Marseille $45 million for Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba on Monday, it wasn’t because the English Premier League team was worried about playing Scottish champion Celtic in Seattle on Saturday.

Instead, it was just an ordinary midsummer business deal for Chelsea’s deep-pocketed owner, Roman Abramovich.

Similarly, when stories began circulating that Manchester United might ditch Dutch striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy to acquire English teenager Wayne Rooney from Everton for as much as $50 million, it wasn’t because United was concerned about playing Bayern Munich in Chicago on Sunday.

Instead, it was simply reporters in England speculating on how United Coach Alex Ferguson might retool his squad for the season ahead.

And when European and Portuguese champion FC Porto complained long and loudly Tuesday about Real Madrid trying to poach defender Ricardo Carvalho, it wasn’t because Porto felt it needed Carvalho for its game against Liverpool in Toronto next week.

Instead, it was Porto President Jorge Nino Pinto da Costa’s way of putting Real Madrid in its place.

“The Spaniards have huge egos and believe they can buy anything in Portugal, like our banks and newspapers,” he said. “Real Madrid cannot force us to sell them a player if we don’t want to.”

Words such as these can mean only one thing: Europe is gearing up in earnest for the 2004-2005 season that begins next month. Thanks to the ChampionsWorld Series taking place over the next two weeks, North American fans will be among the first to see how some of the big-name clubs are going about it.

They might be exhibition games, but only in name.

That, as much as anything, explains the success of the Series. It’s an off-Broadway production, certainly, but it features many of the stars and much of the preseason drama. Transatlantic arguments and intrigue follow the teams across the sea.

Last summer, the inaugural ChampionsWorld Series packed stadiums across the U.S. and Canada. Manchester United drew 271,488 fans to its four matches.

This year, the figures should be even more impressive, not only because of the stature of the teams and the quality of the players involved but because interest has been fueled by the success of the recent European Championship.

Manchester United, not surprisingly, is back and is accompanied by AC Milan, AS Roma, Bayern Munich, Celtic, Chelsea, Galatasaray and Liverpool. Between them, the eight clubs feature no fewer than 55 of the players who lit up Portugal during Euro 2004.

Small wonder that Major League Soccer cringes under the immense shadow they cast. It can’t compete and does not even try; there would be no point. Instead, MLS has its All-Star break.

But, as British journalist Dave Hannigan wrote in England’s Guardian newspaper on Tuesday, the ChampionsWorld Series is not about the big-name clubs coming over and relieving the rubes in the soccer backwaters of their hard-earned dollars.

“Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. is a country where people involved in the game have a sophisticated enough appreciation of it to know exactly where they stand on the bigger stage,” Hannigan wrote from New York.

“They are under no illusions about the quality of their own domestic league ... are justifiably proud of the national team ... and fully appreciate that the arrival of some of Europe’s leading clubs ... is all about them cashing in on the game’s increasing popularity here.

“Although some fans will be unaware that they are paying top dollar for probably tepid preseason fare ... the vast majority will be fully cognizant of what to expect.”

From the clubs’ standpoint, tours such as these are all about building an international following. If they can crack the U.S. market, they will earn the dollars to pay for players such as Drogba and Rooney.

Global branding is the name of the game these days, as Florentino Perez, the recently re-elected president of Real Madrid, made clear Monday.

“A few years ago, Manchester United was the club that sold the most throughout the world for the simple reason that its marketing policies were 10 years ahead of everyone else,” Perez told Expansion, a Spanish financial daily newspaper.

“That’s no longer the case. Right now, the global rise of the Real Madrid brand has no comparison.”

According to a study cited by the newspaper, Manchester United’s brand name value is estimated at $358 million, with Real Madrid not far behind at $345 million.

Real Madrid is off to the Far East this summer, while Manchester United is among those clubs courting American fans.

Los Angeles is not part of the ChampionsWorld Series this time. Last year, Manchester United played Club America of Mexico at the Coliseum and the game drew “only” 57,365.

Without a Mexican team in the 2004 Series, and with Manchester United averaging 71,374 at its other stops in 2003, the reason for Los Angeles’ exclusion is evident. The ChampionsWorld Series will be televised, however, so that fans can follow the many story lines connecting the teams. For example:

* Manchester United’s visit will feature the return of U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard, who made his debut for the club in last summer’s Series and immediately became United’s starter. This year, Ferguson is bringing an American home, reserve team defender Jonathan Spector, and expects the 18-year-old to challenge for a first-team place in the season ahead.

* Chelsea has a new coach in Jose Mourinho, who last season led FC Porto to its twin triumphs before being lured to London. Chelsea, which finished second behind Arsenal in the Premier League, also has signed Drogba, Dutch winger Arien Robben, Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech, Portuguese defender Paulo Ferreira and Serbia and Montenegro striker Mateja Kezman.

* Liverpool also has a new coach, Rafael Benitez, who led Valencia to the Spanish title last season. Benitez’s first duties will be to persuade England forward Michael Owen to stick around, to keep Czech striker Milan Baros happy on the bench despite Baros’ being the top scorer at Euro 2004, and to integrate newcomer Djibril Cisse into the team. He also might add to the roster.

“We will spend our money wisely and carefully on the best,” he said. “It is important not to spend a lot but to spend it well.”

Ferguson, already spoiling for a fight with the equally abrasive Mourinho at spend-with-impunity Chelsea, put it another way.

“Money isn’t the issue,” Ferguson said. “Picking the right players is the issue.”