U23 Vietnam wins ticket to the final round; Real and Barca "unrivaled" in salary, MU only ranks 6th

Defeating U23 Yemen, U23 Vietnam won a ticket to the final round

The 1-0 victory over U23 Yemen in the final match of Group C (on the evening of September 9) helped coach Kim Sang-sik's team finish the qualifying round as group winners and officially win a ticket to the 2026 AFC U23 Championship Finals in Saudi Arabia.

Having won the previous two matches, U23 Vietnam only needed a draw to maintain their top spot in the group and advance. In the match against U23 Yemen, coach Kim Sang-sik's team started the match somewhat slowly.

However, after only 10 minutes of probing, U23 Vietnam began to accelerate. Goalkeeper Mokref's goal was constantly threatened by the red-shirted strikers, while the team from West Asia organized a tight defense in their home field.

Despite being defeated continuously, U23 Yemen suddenly rose up at the end of the first half because the West Asian team needed a victory to take the top spot and thereby be able to touch the direct ticket. But at this time, coach Kim Sang-sik began to "throw his trump cards" onto the field. The Korean strategist changed the attack of U23 Vietnam when Thanh Nhan, Van Thuan and Dinh Bac replaced Van Khang, Quoc Viet and Ngoc My.

Reality on the field showed that this was a correct decision. During the rest of the first and second half, the attacking power of U23 Vietnam improved significantly. The tireless efforts of the red team were rewarded in the 70th minute. After a pass with Van Thuan, Thanh Nhan broke through fiercely and then fired a powerful shot that "burned the net" of U23 Yemen.

That was also the only goal in this match, in the end, U23 Vietnam won 1-0 against U23 Yemen. Coach Kim Sang-sik's team ended their journey in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship Qualifiers with 9 absolute points after 3 matches, winning a direct ticket to the final round.

"Cheap" Barca vs "Nouveau Riche"

The FIFA Days are coming to an end, and Barca are getting ready to return to club competition. The Catalans will enter the Champions League qualifying round, where they will face a series of “nouveau riche” who spent lavishly in the summer transfer window.

Another summer, La Liga is inferior to the remaining tournaments in the Big 5 of Europe. With 684 million Euros spent on transfers, the number 1 tournament in the land of bulls is only better than Ligue 1 (646 million Euros), while being inferior to the Premier League (3.55 billion Euros), Serie A (1.12 billion Euros) and Bundesliga (696 million Euros). And Barca has a significant "contribution" to La Liga's decline.

As usual, the Catalan team still struggled with financial difficulties and salary limits to meet the 1:1 rule. The strict financial control measures of the La Liga Organizing Committee forced Barca to only dare to spend 27.5 million Euros to bring in 3 new players. Of which, only Joan Garcia and Roony Bardghji cost them money, while Marcus Rashford was on loan from MU.

In terms of money spent on transfers, Barca is only ranked 79th in Europe. In La Liga, the Camp Nou team is far behind both Atletico (175 million Euros) and Real Madrid (167.5 million Euros). Looking more broadly, the Catalans are even behind... 20 English clubs, 13 Italian clubs, 9 French clubs and 8 German clubs.

The problem is that in this Champions League qualifying round, Barca have faced a series of "nouveau riche". Of the eight upcoming opponents, they have spent less than five teams: Chelsea (328 million Euros), Newcastle (288), PSG (103) and even Frankfurt (57) and Club Brugge (36). President Joan Laporta's team only spent more than Olympiacos (23.37 million Euros), Copenhagen (21.9) and Slavia Prague (8.3).

Of course, the level of investment in the squad is not always proportional to the strength of the team. Basically, the squad in the hands of coach Hansi Flick is still very strong, mainly thanks to the brilliance of the young stars they trained themselves. But looking at the opponents, it is clear that the cules cannot help but feel sad. Because they do not know when Barca will be able to activate a blockbuster.

Real and Barca are unrivaled in terms of salary, MU is only ranked 6th

According to statistics from L'Equipe, Real Madrid and Barca are the two leading teams in Europe in terms of salary. Each Real player receives an average of 11.2 million Euros/year, higher than any other club. Barca is second with 7.91 million Euros/year per player.

The summer of 2025 will see the Premier League continue to "break the transfer market", set spending records, generate a lot of revenue and overwhelm leagues across Europe. According to statistics, the total spending in the Premier League is equal to the top four European leagues: France, Germany, Spain and Italy combined. However, the total cost of player salaries of Premier League teams cannot be equal to the two giants of La Liga, Real Madrid and Barca.

According to a recent report by L'Equipe (published on Radio Catalunya), Real Madrid is the team with the highest average salary expenditure in Europe. On average, each Los Blancos player is receiving an average salary of 11.2 million Euros per year. Barca is the second highest paying club, with an average of 7.91 million Euros/year per player. However, this figure is still significantly lower than their arch-rivals from the Spanish capital, with a gap of 29.4%.

Only Real Madrid is completely superior to other teams. Barca's average spending is only equivalent to other big teams in Europe, such as Man City, Bayern Munich, PSG or Arsenal.

Man City have an average total expenditure of 7.91 million euros/year, with Bayern Munich (7.38 million euros) just behind. PSG and Arsenal, with an average of 7 million euros/year for players, are in the Top 5 highest-paying teams in the world.

MU, after being taken over by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has been actively streamlining the apparatus, reducing contracts with sky-high salaries, and has shown significant improvements. However, with high-paid players such as Casemiro, Bruno Fernandes, Jadon Sancho, Mason Mount and Matthijs de Ligt in the squad, MU still ranks 6th in the list of highest average salaries, with 6 million Euros per person/year. This figure is equal to that of arch-rival Liverpool.

London clubs Chelsea and Tottenham also make the top 10, with an average spend of €4.5m per player. Surprisingly absent from the list is Atletico Madrid, who have been La Liga's biggest spenders on transfer fees over the past two years, with €364m. While L'Equipe did not provide specific figures for Los Rojiblancos, their average is €4.5m lower than Chelsea and Spurs, the final two teams in the top 10.