In today’s world of football, money is a very important thing. Just look at Manchester City or PSG. In the last few years, they have had huge investments and you can clearly see the difference in their squads.

Manchester City were in the shadows of their city rivals Manchester United for a very long time but after the club was taken over by City Football Group and with Sheikh Mansour behind the club, they have now dominated the Premier League in recent times. They won back to back Premier League titles.

PSG has also spent a huge sum of money in bringing in Neymar and Mbappe in a bid to win the Champions League. They haven’t been successful in Europe till now but have been very dominant in Ligue 1.

But can everything be bought by money in football? Can a club intelligently spend less amount of money and be successful?

I would say yes. Just look at Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund. Or even Serie A giants Juventus to some extent. These two clubs hold the first and second position in the list of financially smartest clubs in the world.

Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund has an outstanding transfer policy put in place. They don’t have the financial power like Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich, but Dortmund always packs a punch above their weight. They finished second in the Bundesliga this season and beat PSG in the Champions League first leg only to lose narrowly in the second leg and get eliminated.

Now, if you look into the recent signings of Borussia Dortmund you will see how smartly they have calculated the moves.

• Jadon Sancho – $9m
• Erling Braut Haaland – $22.5m
• Julian Brandt – $25m
• Emre Can – $28m
• Thorgan Hazard -$28m
• Manuel Akanji – $24m
• Dan-Axel Zagadou – Free transfer
• Giovanni Reyna – Free transfer
• Thomas Meunier – Free transfer

The most brilliant move was signing Jadon Sancho for a very low transfer fee of $9m from Manchester City. He is now worth over $150m. Sancho has become a world-class winger with dazzling pace and eye-catching skills.

Haaland is also a bargain buy. The teenager is so good in front of goal and has already started to break Bundesliga records.

They haven’t spent more than $30m for any player and has still managed to build a talented team, which can challenge any European side on any given day.

Juventus

The Serie A giants have won the last 8 league titles. This shows how dominant a side they are! But Juventus don’t usually spend millions, unlike the other top European clubs.

These are their most recent signings:

• Cristiano Ronaldo – $105m
• Adrien Rabiot – Free transfer
• Aaron Ramsey – Free transfer
• Gianluigi Buffon – Free transfer
• Arthur – $10m (along with Miralem Pjanic)

Spending a little above $100m to bring in one of football’s greatest player is an absolute bargain. Ronaldo has given the team a sense of superiority along with a strong mentality to succeed.

You can just see the number of free transfers they have made. Ramsey and Rabiot are very good players who can easily play for top European teams. And now exchanging a 30-year-old midfielder, Pjanic for a 23-year-old midfielder, Arthur for just an extra $10m is a mind-blowing transfer business.

So, you can see from these two clubs – Borussia Dortmund and Juventus, that smart calculated moves can help to build a good quality side even without a huge financial strength. It’s not all about money.

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