It's Ridiculous.

I have to say, the mind-boggling amount of money being offered (and not even taken!) in player transfers concerns me. Real Madrid has been linked with a move for Cristiano Ronaldo that involves a tranfer fee in the vicinity of $140 million and players for the winger. Chelsea have been linked, though not as heavily, with a bid in the neighborhood of $170 million for the services of Fernando Torres. Aston Villa continues to hold out for a transfer fee of $36 million for their captain, Gareth Barry. Granted, he's their captain and he's worth a great deal to the midlands club, but he is in no way worth thirty-six million dollars. Then there's the transfer of CSKA Moscow player Jo to Manchester City. Jo completed the move for 19 million pounds. That's about 38 million dollars. I'm utterly bemused by the amount of money involved in this transfer. I've seen Jo play live. Twice, in fact. I drove up to Canada and saw four games of the 2007 U20 World Cup. Two of the games were Brazil-South Korea and Brazil-USA. While undeniably a talented player, Jo failed to score in all four games at the tournament for a Brazil side that was disappointing overall. Now, compare Jo's exorbitant transfer fee with the much more reasonable price paid for a player far more successful in the 2007 tournament than Jo. I'm talking of course, about Josmer Altidore. In Altidore's five games at the tournament he scored four goals, including a brace against Jo's Brazil. With the exception of a few nice touches, Jo accomplished next to nothing for Brazil. Despite this, Altidore has been sold for a fraction of the price of Jo. If I'm honest, the $10 million paid for Altidore is much closer to his value at this point than the $38 million paid for Jo. There is the fact that Jo is two years older than Altidore and has been plying his trade in Europe, while Altidore has toiled away in the swamps of Jersey. There is something to be said for Jo's 30 goals in 53 games for CSKA Moscow, two of which came against Inter Milan in the Champions League. Perhaps Altidore's potential to surpass Jo in the next three years can be measured by the fact that Altidore has made his way to a more prestigious club in Villarreal at 18 than Jo's Manchester City. In spite of these facts, I can't help but feel that American players continue to be undervalued while players like Jo are consistently bought and sold for well over their actual value just because they're from a country like Brazil.