Last week, Spanish soccer club Real Madrid broke the world-record transfer fee when it shelled out #80 million for a single player.
The club made Manchester United an offer it simply couldn't refuse, nabbing Portuguese phenom Cristiano Ronaldo for the hefty price-tag.
You maybe be thinking, yes, that's fairly interesting, but major sports organizations spend lavish amounts of money in the transfer market to pick up new talent all the time! Well, the kicker of Real Madrid's recent purchase is that Spain currently suffers from an approximate 18 percent unemployment rate.
The United States' unemployment rate is barely over 9 percent, and we all know of the economic woes the nation is experiencing.
Imagine the situation that's producing an 18 percent unemployment rate! All the while, a prominent Spanish futbol club just paid $107 million to enlist the talent of a single player.
This whole situation seems skewed, yet familiar.
Ronaldo's headline transfer reminded us of English star David Beckham's transfer to the States in 2007 to play for the L.A. Galaxy.
While Real Madrid owes $107 million just to bring Ronaldo to their club, Beckham signed a plan to net himself $200 million through salary and endorsements over a five-year period.
Again, that's absurd.
By the time Ronaldo is in the thick of his new contract, he will be making approximately 33 times that of the average Spaniard, while Beckham's contract paid him 800 times that of the average American household at time of his transfer, according to the Census Bureau.
With our jaws on the floor, we try to mutter our disdain.
Yes, these are two of the most high-profile names to ever play the game, but those monetary figures seem light years beyond ill-advised when their home countries are battling the dragon named Economy.
And these lavish exchanges aren't limited to soccer.
Professional football, basketball and baseball shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars to individual athletes on a weekly basis.
Obviously we understand the prominence of professional sports in our society, but the notion of sports stars raking in more dough than they can spend while large portions of the population struggle to scrape by is saddening.
Prioritization is key.
If Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Garnett and David Beckham's salaries were cut by a couple million dollars, would the sports suffer? Certainly not.
But if several millions of dollars were salvaged in many different avenues across the country, would that monetary change make a difference? Certainly yes.
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