Every employer’s dream? Diego Simeone’s numbers at Atlético Madrid are hard to believe

Diego Simeone has been at Atlético Madrid since December 2011 and in that time the club has made exactly 999.85 million euros in player sales, a sum that most coaches can only dream of.

The imaginary podium would be made complete by a pair of Portuguese coaches, Leonardo Jardim, who has earned his employers €963 million from player sales, and José Mourinho, whose outgoing players have cost other clubs €773 million.

The Argentine coach’s first big loss was Radamel Falcao, who was sold by Atlético Madrid to Monaco for 43 million euros.

The Colombian striker was followed by the duo of Diego Costa (€38 million) and Filipe Luís (€20 million) and, conversely, Antoine Griezmann and Jan Oblak arrived in the Spanish capital in the 2014/15 season.

That season, incidentally, Raúl Jiménez (Wolves) also moved to Europe and is currently returning to form after a horrific injury.

The following season Atlético Madrid almost doubled their turnover, selling off a number of players for 152 million euros, the most expensive transfer being Jackson Martínez, who left for 42 million euros to Chinese side GZ Evergrande.

The 2016/17 season was not very interesting for the Spanish defending champions, but in the next one they have already collected 104 million euros again, when Yannick Carrasco (DL Yifang) headed to China for 30 million euros and Real Madrid strengthened Theo Hernández for 24 million euros.

The next season Atlético rather strengthened when Thomas Lemar arrived for 72 million euros or Rodri for 20 million euros.

But in the 2019/20 season, the Argentine coach’s team was already selling big again, having made €309 million from the sales of Antoine Griezmann, Lucas Hernández, Rodri, Gelson Martins and others. On the other hand, he invested most of it again in Joao Félix, Marcos Llorente and others.

Even last season the books were fairly balanced, with only Thoma Partey and Álvaro Morata leaving for bigger sums. This summer, then, only Saúl Ñíguez (on loan) left among the important players.

Playing under Simeon has really paid off for many players, and given the many talents currently at Atlético, more big transfers can be expected, hampered only by the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus.

And it must also be added that despite key players leaving Atlético every season for top clubs, Simeone has managed to deliver great performances year after year and also win big trophies.

It’s a great pity that he didn’t add the two Europa League and La Liga titles to the Champions League title he was so close to winning.

Source: Transfermarkt