A Real burden
Afp, Madrid
Real Madrid are heavily in debt after spending millions in new signings over the past few years, the president of the Spanish giants Ramon Calderon said Friday in a newspaper interview. But the Real president said the club were nonetheless in good financial shape, having just finished "the best season in their history". He said the 500 million euros (683.5 million US dollars) that the club made through the sale of their city-centre training ground known as Ciudad Deportiva in 2001 had been spent on new signings and he inherited a debt of 270 million euros when he took over 14 months ago. "We owe this because we are richer," Calderon told the newspaper before adding: "This debt is very reasonable." Real Madrid was the world's wealthiest club in terms of revenues during the 2005-06 season; according to an annual ranking published by business advisory firm Deloitte. It generated 292.2 million euros in sales during that season, its second straight season at the top of the ranking. Real signed France's Zinedine Zidane from Italian side Juventus in 2001 for 75 million euros, the biggest transfer in football history. The club spent 60 million euros to sign Portugal's Luis Figo, and 50 millions euros each to sign Brazil's Ronaldo and England's David Beckham, Calderon said.
| 
