Argentine winger Angel di Maria became the most expensive transfer in British football history after moving to Manchester United for £ 59.7 million from Real Madrid. He has broken the record held by Fernando Torres after his move from Liverpool to Chelsea in 2011. However, things could have been very different had Paris St Germain been without any sanctions from UEFA. The French club were the first to register an interest in the 26-year-old when it became clear that he was going to be sold by Madrid. After having signed David Luiz from Chelsea for around £ 45 million, PSG were not in a position to make another extravagant signing.
After making vast losses last season, UEFA imposed a lot of sanctions with one of them being a cap on the transfer spending for this summer. PSG were allowed to spend only around £ 50 million in new players this summer. After having blown out most of this figure on Luiz, PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi says that the club was not in a position to sign di Maria despite the player claiming to be interested in joining them. At his first press conference as the Manchester United player, di Maria revealed that he did not want to leave Madrid in the first place.
“Di Maria wanted to come to Paris but even without FFP (Financial Fair Play), we wouldn’t have signed him. I do not know if Michel Platini wants to kill French football, but FFP is not fair. It is very difficult to understand. The big clubs stay big and small clubs remain small. We respect the rules but want to discuss it with Uefa in October to try to change the rules a little.
Otherwise investors will not come in football; they will go to other sports such as Formula 1,” said the president of PSG.