Guess What?
By: Abby | January 8th, 2008
Hertha Berlin Land Zürich’s Raffael
In news that surprised no one, Hertha and FC Zürich have agreed on a deal to send Brazilian striker Raffael, Lulu Favre’s long-term top transfer target, to Berlin. In other news that surprised no one, the signing fee was €5 million, after Dieter Hoeness had first said there was no more than €3.5 in the bank for transfers, then saying that Hertha wouldn’t pay more than €4.5 million. But hard bargaining is not what he’s known for, so eventually the agreement was made.
His record in Zürich is pretty formidable- a total of 39 goals in 77 appearances, with 12 in 15 this season (he also had a good record in the Swiss second division with FC Chiasso). He’s won two championships with Lulu, and is forsaking the next round in the UEFA Cup to come to Berlin.
I’m cautiously optimistic- he’s got skills, definitely, but we have a pretty bad track record with Brazilian strikers. However, we are moving in the right direction with Raffael- unlike, say, Andre Lima (heading of Deutsche Welle’s list of the Bundesliga flops of the first half of the season), he’s been in Europe for several years. He’s already used to cold weather and physical play, and come out with a good account of himself. So it’s more possible he’ll work out.
Oh, and speaking of that Deutsche Welle list- we have three entries on it if you count Sofian Chahed’s dishonorable mention. Our other mention is Gilberto, who’s proving that it’s not a particularly good year for veteran Brazilian Gilbertos.
But Yildiray Bastürk is also on there, so nyah.
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“the signing fee was €5 million, after Dieter Hoeness had first said there was no more than €3.5 in the bank for transfers, then saying that Hertha wouldn’t pay more than €4.5 million. But hard bargaining is not what he’s known for, so eventually the agreement was made.”
You should add another €3.5 million for Andre Lima to that number, who hasn’t done anything for Hertha yet. Wasn’t he Hoeness answer to Lulu’s wish to sign Raffael in the summer?
I wonder how Hertha could ever get into financial trouble.;-)
Although, I’m probably overly critical of Lima. He’s just 22 years old and doesn’t know European football yet, so he probably needs some time to settle in.
Posted from
Germany
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Yeah. But this is why Hertha fans/and now the board get angry at Dieter Hoeness- he sometimes seems to be completely inept at financial negotiations. He’ll spend more money than we need to spend on a player no one wants, and then can’t seem to negotiate with other teams for players we do want. Or to sell, really. The only one we got a good price on was the Boateng brother that went to Tottenham, and Tottenham might be the only club more inept at financial negotiations out there…
Posted from
United States -
[...] Lulu can finally add Raffael to his Hertha kindergarten. (Hertha Offside) [...]
Posted from
United States
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