The connection between the transfer market and airports

There is a moment when the transfer market negotiations, so smoky and volatile, become concrete. It is a step that precedes club announcements. The instant when a signing is not yet official but for the first time becomes real. The first moment when fans can dream with knowledge: the arrival at the airport. When the door of the private jet opens or simply the gates after a regular flight, then yes: all those rumors about figures, contracts, and terms take shape. The airport has become the heart of communication around the transfer market. Just check the social media profiles of Serie A teams; an entire narrative has developed around arrivals at the airport. And this doesn't only concern the players. The arrival of a coach is celebrated just as much as that of new signings.

Initially, images of airport arrivals were the prerogative of few reporters, those journalists who could rely on a cameraman at their disposal. This material, photo, or video, became extremely valuable when journalists realized they could do everything themselves with their phones: footage to be spread via social media to claim exclusivity through a watermark while waiting for the reference outlet to upload it on their site or broadcast it. And so, the more important the arriving player, the larger the group of journalists armed with phones at their arrival (or departure). Gradually, however, clubs realized the value of this content, and so now airport arrivals are captured directly by the teams' social media.

The turning point was probably experienced with the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo by Juventus, with the Bianconeri publishing the video of the Portuguese's arrival in Italy on the day of the 2018 World Cup final. From that moment on, that type of content became the norm. Juventus replicated it in the past with Angel Di Maria and Paul Pogba, but more recently followed this same practice to welcome the new coach Thiago Motta. There is one team that has raised the bar even further: Roma. The Giallorossi broadcast live the arrival in Italy of José Mourinho, with the Portuguese traveling on a private jet personally piloted by the club's owner Dan Friedkin.

At the moment, airport videos remain an exclusive of Italian clubs, but more and more journalists in Europe have adopted this trend from Italian reporters. Today, for example, it is very easy to come across a photo of Bayern Munich's new signing entering the technical center for medical tests. It is also common for a player heading to a Premier League team to share through his agent the moment he boards the plane that will take him to England. The transfer market narrative is the one most voraciously consumed by fans; there is always a hunger for new details, and as Fabrizio Romano explained in a recent interview, even outside Italy, they have realized the importance of this type of obsessive narrative. Content is needed, and nothing is better than a video that turns a fantasy into reality.