Angel Di Maria Generated Over $150 Million in Transfer Fees the Last Two Summers

Angel Di Maria completed his long-rumored move from Manchester United to PSG on Thursday for a reported fee worth roughly $68 million. That sum is actually a loss on what United paid Real Madrid last summer ($90+ million by current exchange rates) that made the Argentine midfielder the most-expensive transfer in English soccer history.

Quick math, and in barely 12 months Di Maria’s been worth close to $160 million in fees, depending on the exchange rates putting him near the top of the all-time transfer fee totals. Soccer clubs at the highest echelon such as United and PSG basically work with Monopoly money, but the fees do often come off as comical, although perhaps not as comical as UEFA’s attempt to install “Financial Fair Play” regulations.

History will not be kind to Di Maria for his short stint at Old Trafford. Most will likely forget how strong he looked at the start of the 2014-15 EPL season and instead focus how he drifted to the periphery by the time May rolled around, slowed by injuries.

Di Maria’s drop-off could be attributed to the massive amounts of soccer he logged with Real Madrid and Argentina over the 2013-14 season leading into the World Cup. Over that calendar year, he played in 69 games across all competitions, helping Real Madrid win the Champions League that May. At the start of the World Cup, you could argue he was right up there with his then club teammate Cristiano Ronaldo and international colleague Lionel Messi in terms of importance for their sides. Argentina fans will forever wonder what if Di Maria didn’t get hurt ahead of the 2014 final vs. Germany.

That said, the Di Maria-United marriage never exactly worked. Coming off the awful David Moyes-led campaign, United needed to make a splash and Di Maria was deemed surplus parts at Real Madrid. So United took a flier on him — hey why not? — and it didn’t quite work out, same thing with Falcao although the Colombian striker never really showed much of anything in a United shirt.

Reports from England say Di Maria never settled in the country and Louis van Gaal didn’t seem to care about his price tag or too broken up about letting him leave. His departure could means Pedro leaves Barcelona for United, setting up a potential first-choice front line of Memphis Depay, Wayne Rooney and the Spanish forward for the new season.

PSG doesn’t care about money, so adding Di Maria is a smart move as the club looks to eventually move away from being dominated by Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Qatari-owned club has done everything it can in French soccer, so this move is clearly meant for the Champions League. Di Maria is adaptable and can play either in midfield or a wide forward position. He and countryman Javier Pastore should be comfortable playing alongside each other following the Copa America earlier this year.

The bigger winner here? As usual super-agent Jorge Mendes. Fresh off receiving a Greek island from Ronaldo at his wedding, Mendes gets his slice of the biggest soccer transfer for the second straight summer. The mind boggles at the fee he’ll be able to get for Ronaldo should the Portuguese star ever decide he wants to leave Real Madrid.

[Photo via Getty]