photo by Philippe Agnifili

Paris and Madrid. Two capitals with two football clubs who have something in common. Both are big spenders, or at least starting to become a big spender. Qatar Investment Authority became the majority owner of Paris Saint Germain last year and made PSG the richest club in France (and one of the richest in the world). Since then, PSG has been doing what Madrid has been doing since 2009. They've been trying to sign everyone on the planet.

Starting in 2009 Real Madrid began their second Galáctico era, led by President Florentino Pérez. The first major signing was Ricardo Kaka, who was acquired from AC Milan for a fee of €68 million, which was a record at the time. That record was broken three weeks later when Madrid acquired Cristian Ronaldo from Man United for €96 million. Karim Benzema was signed a week later from Lyon for about €41 million. To wrap up summer 2009 Madrid signed Raúl Albiol from for Valencia €15 million, and Xabi Alonso from Liverpool for €36 million. Real Madrid's spending spree did not stop there they would go on to hire José Mourinho as their manager and sign Ángel di María (€25m), Sami Khedira (€15m), Sergio Canales (€4.5m), Pedro León (€10m), Ricardo Carvalho (€7.9m), and Mesut Özil (€15m).

PSG has now started their own Galáctico era. Well, more like Galactique era. The club's first major signing was Javier Pastore, who they acquired from Palermo for €42 million. PSG also signed Kevin Gameiro (€11m), Jérémy Ménez (€8m), and Blaise Matuidi (€7.5m). This year PSG is bringing out the big guns, or rather big bags of money. PSG has been involved in rumors regarding the signing of Dimitar Berbatov, Carlos Tevez, Ricardo Kaká, David Beckham, Florent Malouda, and Alexandre Pato. Lets not forget the rumored hiring of former Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti.

By the end of January there may be a new powerhouse in the world of football. One player i'd really like to see in a PSG kit: Neymar. Make it happen, PSG.

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