How has football changed?

How has Football Changed? 2011 FC Barcelona Vs. 1956 Real Madrid

In this article I'm going to be taking a look into how the game has evolved into what it is today. I shall be comparing two of the greatest sides ever to grace the turfs. First of all I’ll be comparing the players.

When Real Madrid won the first ever European Cup in 1956 against Stade de Reims their entire team was either Spanish or half Spanish. When Barcelona lifted their 4th European Cup in 2011 against Manchester United only 7 of their starting 11 were Spanish. This is still a high figure today for players playing in a team in their home nation. The fact of the matter is that today teams will hunt far and wide to collect the most skilled and talented individuals and then pay a gargantuan sum of money for them. In 1956 the only real hope you had of signing was if you lived very close to the club. Then a small sum of money would be paid for a player back then. Nowadays though clubs will quite literally go to the ends of the earth to find a stupendous player.

My next point is player development. My example for Barcelona is Lionel Messi. At just 24 years of age he is widely considered and feared as the best player in the world. Messi was enrolled at the Barcelona academy at the age of 14 when he and his father moved to Barcelona just for that. Since then he has made 177 appearances for Barcelona, scoring 119 goals at the same time. He is now rumoured to be wearing an over £100 million price tag. My example for Real Madrid is Francisco Gento. When Gento arrived at Madrid he had only played 10 games for his previous club Racing Santander. Again the player development worked out. 428 games for Real Madrid and 126 goals spelled complete success for the development.  Again though, Gento was Spanish, which made him easy to find. More money is now invested into development, so teams can have better players cheaper.

For me really football has changed due to one thing. Money. The investment in teams, players and development means teams can do so much more in order to find that winning combination. Today that 1956 team would likely be thrashed due to lack of investment. That’s how football’s changed. Money.