Every now and then, you come across a story that just makes your brain grind to a screeching halt. Fox Sports reported such a story this morning. Apparently, Schalke defender and former Manchester City man, Matija Nastasic, was sold...for a washing machine.
That's according to former Partizan Belgrade captain Albert Nadj, who has accused the club of letting go of young players to early.
"Matija Nastasic left the club for one washing machine, without having played one match for Partizan A team!" said Nadj in an interview with Blic, "A man directly involved in his transfer told me how Nastasic's family was poor and one day their washing machine broke. So some agents took advantage of that, jumped in and took the kid under their custody."
It's important to distinguish that Nastasic was actually sold for 2.5 million Euros to Fiorentina, according to transfermarkt.com. If Nadj is speaking the truth, it means that Nastasic's family essentially gave his rights away for a new washing machine.
Along with Nastasic, Partizan youth products, Alexander Mitrovic and Lazar Markovic, were sold on to Anderlecht and Benfica respectively, and then left for considerably more money. Mitrovic, for example, was sold to Anderlecht for 3 million Euros in 2013, before transferring to Newcastle last summer for 11 million.
It's certainly a strange story, and it certainly wouldn't be a stretch to say that Partizan have some work to do in regards to their internal business model.
For the record, Matija Nastasic is now worth 14 million Euros, or approximately 13,722 Whirlpool Duet washing machines. You've come along way buddy.
That's a whole Oprah Show worth of washing machines. Photo: @paxton_o | Twitter
Just for fun, we thought we'd measure some other transfers in consumer products.
Gareth Bale: Tottenham to Real Madrid: 101 million Euros or 10,990,245 six-packs of Nike Swoosh headbands.
There's an actual clause in his contract that demands payment in headbands, Photo: @Speedyx24 | Twitter
Cristiano Ronaldo: Manchester United to Real Madrid: 94 million Euros or 798,368 of whatever the hell these things are:
Zinedine Zidane: Juventus to Real Madrid: 73.5 million Euros or almost 27 million of these bumper stickers:
Yes you can, Zidane, yes you can. Photo: @ItsLloydM8 | Twitter
Luis Figo: FC Barcelona to Real Madrid: 60 million Euros or around 1.5 million The18 zip-up hoodies.
Or you know...you could just buy one...over here.
