AC Milan saw their 27 games unbeaten run come to an end against Andrea Pirlo's Juventus, after remaining 304 days undefeated in Serie A. In fact, The Old Lady has lined up together several big stars and high earners such as none other than the second all-time leading goalscorer in football history Cristiano Ronaldo, as well as Paulo Dybala, and Wojciech Szczęsny, who did manage to prevent Juventus from conceding more than once during the match.
On the other hand, The Rossoneri, unlike their historical rival, are less stacked with "blockbuster" names, as the highest earner is the goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma who receives no more than 6 million euros a year. Besides, Pioli's starting eleven barely makes a combined €26 million a year, while Cristiano Ronaldo solely collects a net wage of €31 million, as reported by Journalist Max Bambara.
It is certainly a remarkable insight that clearly shows how both Italian clubs are taking two entirely different directions. The first is splashing out on transfer fees and wages, whereas the other is following a precise strategy of signing young fairly low-priced talents with a great potential for the long-term, with the best example being the French full-back Theo Hernàndez who was bought for €20 million from Real Madrid, and now turned out to be widely regarded as a world-class performer, almost delivering masterclasses week in week out, making his Transfermarkt value rise to €50 million.
At the end of the day, it is safe to say that the big financial gap was not obvious on the field Wednesday night, and even less if we are to include whole season's results, with AC Milan leading the league table, ahead of Inter Milan, Roma and Juventus.
