November 2007

Real offer real money

Chelsea aren't the only ones hell bent on buying trophies and success. News is the club's president Ramon (doesn't that remind you of Roman? Ed.) is to give players and team coach Bernd Schuster a huge incentive to bring in the silverwares. The tune? £400,000 per player if Real lift this season's Champions League trophy.

Calderon will give bonuses amounting to €15 million should the Madristas claim their tenth European Cup. But wait, there's more. According to Spanish press, the club will give an additional £250,000 per player if Real win this season's La Liga title and another £200,000 per player if the elusive Copa del Ray, a cup Madried have not won in 14 years, is landed. To spare you the number crunching, this works out to a staggering £850,000 per player if the treble is achieved.

Golden hands

Real Madrid super keeper lker Casillas has insured his hands for 7.5million in a recent promotional event with Spanish insurance company Groupama Seguros.

Renowned for consistently producing incredulous saves to haul Real Madrid out of the boiling cauldron, the Spain captain did not say how much the policy cost, only revealing it to last until the end of the current season.

"Every person should have professional insurance and in my case this is in event of an injury which truncates my career," said the 26 year-old player who has been capped 72 times at international level and played in more than 300 first team games in the white of Madrid.

If you ask us at EPL, we don't this €7.5million even comes close to matching the price of Casillas' pair of safe hands. They're heaps more valuable than a certain Golden Balls.

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