Boca Juniors fans (Eitan Abramovich/AFP)
The Brazilian star transfer deal Neymar Da Silva is the most expensive in the history of football, and it was acquired in 2017, when he paid Paris Saint-Germain 222 million euros to buy the striker from Barcelona, more than 3 times the 80 million Real Madrid paid Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009.
However, in Argentina and the 1930s, there were no high-caliber deals, no multimillion-dollar transfers, and in 1938 Boca Juniors signed defender Arcadio Julio Lopez in exchange for planks of wood.
weird deal
Arcadio Lopez began his career in the Lanus team, and in 1934 he moved to Sportivo Paracas, and in the same year, after his brilliance, he joined the ranks of the Argentine national team. In 1935 he arrived at the Ferro team, and two years later, in the Brazilian Flamengo, the country to which Argentine players began to move due to the strong improvements in the level of salaries.
After spending a year in Caracas, Lopez returned to the country from the gate of the Ferro team, and the news of his arrival spread through the big clubs, and San Lorenzo and Boca expressed their interest in his inclusion, and in light of the financial deficit at that period, the Boca president had another exciting offer.
Boca’s La Pamonera stadium was under construction, and on January 20, 1938, Camilo Cicero and Rodolfo Legrain, presidents of both clubs, concluded the agreement.
The Boca administration pledged to lease the “Caballetto” stadium, which belongs to the Ferro team, until the completion of work on its stadium, and within the contract, there was a clause dedicated exclusively to Arcadio Lopez, whose value was estimated to be passed at 25,000 pesos, and while there was no money, so he promised Boca moved the north stand of its old stadium, which was of wood, and 410 booths from its original stadium to the Fierro stadium, to cooperate in the development of the latter’s stadium.
The club management saw in the offer, a great opportunity to expand and improve the capacity of its stadium, and thus, on February 7, 1938, Boca included Arcadio Lopez for his ranks with a contract worth 4,000 pesos (awarded to the player) and a monthly salary of 200 pesos, in addition to bonuses linked to his performance with the team.