The Frenchman's move to Manchester United and Gonzalo Higuain's €90 million transfer to Juventus merely underline that "the beautiful game" is uglier than ever before.
When AC Milan broke the world transfer record in the summer of 1992 by paying approximately 15.2 million euros ($17M) for Torino winger Gianluigi Lentini, the Vatican labeled the sum "an offense to the dignity of work." Of course, for the Catholic Church of the time to take such a moralistic stance has transpired to be the height of hypocrisy, but there was no denying that the fee was outrageous, as were the circumstances surrounding the deal.