After finishing eighth last season, Rayo brought in 15 new players this term. Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno / Getty Images
After finishing eighth last season, Rayo brought in 15 new players this term. Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno / Getty Images
After finishing eighth last season, Rayo brought in 15 new players this term. Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno / Getty Images
After finishing eighth last season, Rayo brought in 15 new players this term. Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno / Getty Images

Sport

Rayo Vallecano have a wage bill 1.2 per cent as large as that of Real Madrid, yet they finished eighth in the Primera Liga last term and hope to get the maximum from the minimum after selling their best players and bringing in 15 free agents.

Andy Mitten
Andy Mitten
Barcelona and Manchester

September 18, 2013

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Nothing exemplifies the disparity in Spanish football better than the playing budgets of two top-flight Madrid clubs.

Real Madrid’s is €580 million (Dh2.84 billion) for this season, 83 times that of Rayo Vallecano’s €7m. Real have long been Spain’s richest club with the prestigious address to match; Rayo have longed punched above their weight on the other side of the tracks.

But 83 times less revenue?

Success for Madrid is winning the league or the Champions League; for Rayo it’s top-flight survival. Only the latter could term last season a success – a big success – as Rayo finished eighth, the highest placing in their history, and they had a party to celebrate. They know that they are always going to lose their best players and they can do little to prevent them going.

Michu went to Swansea for just €2.5m, while the Brazilian Leo Baptistao, a secondary striker and last season’s most promising player, joined Atletico for €7m – enough to fund the team for a season. And it will, for Rayo did not spend a penny on new players in the close season, instead bringing in an astonishing 15 new players on free transfers.

Paco Jemez’s newly assembled side is not yet gelling. After beating the promoted Elche 3-0 on the opening day, Rayo have lost 5-0 at both Atletico and Malaga. They’ve also lost 2-1 at home, to Levante, and sit 17th.

Their fans will remember last season, when they were 15th after nine matches, but rose steadily as the players learnt each others’ names.

By the time they had come to know each other, they were in the process of moving and bettering themselves as a more stable unit. Then their top scorer, Piti, moved to Granada.

Rayo’s model is unconventional, but what else can they do? After years of debts and mismanagement, they have to be run in a prudent manner, with past excesses consigned to yore.

Rayo once had a priest on the payroll, who picked up a bonus if the team won, at the same time that they were €60m in debt. Rayo were playing third-division football in 2008. Now, they are competing in the top flight.

They beat Athletic, Atletico, Malaga and Valencia last season. A repeat season looks improbable, but with Rayo you never know. They host Barcelona on Saturday.

sports@thenational.ae

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