Real Madrid beat Getafe on Sunday to kick-start their LaLiga campaign. Gareth Bale and Dani Carvajal scored to hand Real Madrid the victory. The win gave new manager Julen Lopetegui a win in his first league game managing the Madrid outfit. But the match wasn’t all good news for the Los Blancos, as they also broke a rather unceremonious record.
The attendance for the opening fixture was 48,446 as per LaLiga’s official website. Although LaLiga’s decision to hold the game at 10:15 PM local time might have affected the numbers for the game, it is still shocking to see a club like Real Madrid record such a low attendance. In fact, this was their lowest attendance in the past 9 years.
The last time Real Madrid posted such a low attendance was back in 2009 when a losing effort against Mallorca saw only 44,270 fans attending the match. The match was the last match of the season which ended a 5 match losing streak for Real.
The low attendance was immediately linked to Ronaldo’s exit from the club. The only two games Real Madrid played without Ronaldo as a member of their squad posted two of the lowest attendances in the given time frame, and this proves just how marketable the Portugese superstar was for the club and what an impact he had among the fans.
Real Madrid are yet to sign a suitable replacement for Cristiano after his move to Juventus, and the lack of big signings can also affect the crowd figures in future games. The only major signing has been Thibaut Courtois who had been left on the bench for the game.
Hopefully, this will be a one time affair due to the unfortunate timing of the match, and their attendance figures will rise once again.
Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo joined Juventus in July, becoming one of the four most expensive players of all time.
A deal worth 112m euros (£99.2m) has been reached between the two clubs that has seen the Portuguese sign a four-year deal with the Italian champions.
Ronaldo, 33, won four Champions League titles in his nine years at Real.
“The time has come to open a new stage in my life, that’s why I asked the club to accept transferring me,” he said.
The top two world record transfer fees have been paid out by Paris St-Germain – the £200m they paid Barcelona for Brazil forward Neymar last August, and the fee of around £166m for France forward Kylian Mbappe in July after a successful season on loan with PSG.