La Liga representative minimizes the impact of CR7 and Messi’s departures: “The dimension of clubs is bigger”

At the start of the current season, Lionel Messi did not have his contract renewed with Barcelona and left the club after 16 years. In 2018, Cristiano Ronaldo left Real Madrid after almost a decade. Two historic players on their respective teams who moved to the other league recently.

Daniel Alonso Duarte, delegate of La Liga in Brazil, minimized the impact of the departures of the Argentine and Portuguese who for so long were protagonists of the Spanish Championship.

“The clubs and the championship are on top of the players. It seems like a cliché, but it’s reality. Look at the history of La Liga, Brazilian mega-star players who passed through La Liga, Romário, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho Gaúcho, Bebeto, Daniel Alves , Neymar, left, for different reasons. But the championship continued to be watched. It is always followed, because the size of the clubs is much bigger than that of the players. They are also giant players. Ronaldo Phenomenon, is there someone bigger? He left and Barça continued to be Barça”, he said.

Daniel Alonso Duarte explained that even after Cristiano Ronaldo left Real Madrid, La Liga’s worldwide audiences increased and that, after Messi’s departure, Barcelona lost some visibility, but that the tendency is to recover.

“What happened with the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo? Our worldwide audiences not only remained, but grew, audiovisual contracts grew as well, and in Brazil it was no different,” he said.

“Messi ended up leaving. For the time being, it’s true that Barcelona is not just Messi’s departure, Barcelona is in a transition phase. Messi is one of the greatest in history, it’s normal for him to go down a little now. Usually the memory of fan is short, it’s more current. If Ansu Fati picks up this number 10 shirt he picked up and pumps it, the idol will be Ansu Fati. That’s a bit of the fan’s logic”, he added.

Finally, Daniel highlighted that they are “very calm” with the departures, as they have been preparing to maintain the stability of the audiences.

“We are very calm because we have been working so that the departure of these stars, we have a quality audiovisual product that allows us to maintain the stability of the audience even without the greatest stars of the last decade”, he highlighted.

In the current season, Vinicius Jr. and Benzema have been the highlights of the Spanish Championship. The Brazilian scored 12 goals and provided five assists in 20 games, while the Frenchman scored 20 goals and served his teammates seven times, also in 20 matches.