How much is too much?

Recently, Manchester City a soccer club in England made an audacious bid for a player on a team in Milan, Italy. Unlike in the US, players are transferred or traded to other clubs for a sum of money rather than players or draft picks. The player in question, Kaka, has been touted by many as possibly the best player in the world. An so his team would be very reluctant to part with the 26 year old midfielder unless a crazy amount of money was offered and even then maybe not. Manchester City, however, decided to make a crazy bid of £107 million, which is roughly $150 million. For one player…The previous record for a player was £46 million for Zinedine Zidane back in 2001. So the bid for Kaka more than doubles the previous record which hasn’t been close to being reached until this point. This is a ridiculous amount considering the current economic climate the world is in. Not to mention how frivolous spending all that money on a sporting figure is. Just imagine how much good £1 million would do for starving children or medicine for the poor and sick. The new owners of Manchester City are oil barons from the Middle East and have made it their goal to buy Manchester City the best players money can buy. Chelsea, a club from England owned by a Russian oil baron, had in the last few years spent more money on players than any other club, and have been criticized by many for buying their trophies. So Manchester City are trying to follow the Chelsea model of winning competitions. One Manchester City fan that I spoke to in the last week said the amount offered didn’t bother him as long as its making his team better however if it was any other team he would have a problem with it. From what I hear, AC Milan accepted the offer from Manchester City(who would blame them?) however Kaka turned down the opportunity to become the highest paid player. Probably because his family was against it as well as Manchester City being a lower prestigious club in European soccer, while AC Milan is one of the most prestigious. I commend Kaka for turning down the money and hope to see other top players turn down money unless they feel it is in their best interest to move to another club.