Shady Billionaires and How Valencia Escaped the Abyss

Spain's financial collapse hit Valencia hardest. In 2012, Standard and Poor's rated Valencian bonds as junk and Reuters printed headlines like "Valencia, a cruel reflection of Spain's economic woes" and "Indebted Valencia asks Spain government for help." The autonomous community had overspent on numerous construction projects—museums, movie production studios, the largest aquarium in Europe, a €150 million airport that has been used exactly once since opening in the spring of 2011—that had essentially been a way for corrupt politicians to funnel money to their friends in the contracting business. As the global economy unravelled in the late aughts, the low interest rates that had allowed Valencia to borrow cash to pay for those projects went away, and the city and the surrounding municipalities subsequently went to hell. Hilariously corrupt public officials were hauled into court. Construction work halted, dotting the landscape with half-finished buildings. Taxes and college fees went through the roof. Government employees were laid off in droves.

Valencia CF followed its city into the gutter, or at least assumed a gutter-adjacent position. In 2007, ground was broken on Nou Mestalla, which was set to replace the old Mestalla Stadium that had been built in 1923, but the project was suspended in early 2009 due to a lack of funds. This left the club in possession of one-and-a-half stadiums, trying to sell off the old one in order to finance the new one, which in Spain's real estate market was (and continues to be) nigh impossible. The stadium debacle caused a club that wasn't particularly financially sound to begin with to positively hemorrhage cash. Reports vary on precisely how deep in the hole Valencia were at certain points, but estimates from July of 2013 pegged the club's debts at somewhere between €350 million and €500 million.

In on-the-pitch terms, this has meant Valencia selling most of their stars over the past half-decade. Many of the world's best Spanish players spent part of their careers with Los Che: David Silva, Jordi Alba, Isco, and Raúl Albiol passed through the youth system. David Villa, Roberto Soldado, Jérémy Mathieu, and Juan Mata had remarkable spells at the Mestalla. All of these players were necessarily shipped out at one point or another, to keep the club afloat. The team did a remarkable job of staying competitive as it bled talent each summer, consistently finishing in the top three in La Liga—ensuring a regular influx of Champions League revenue—but three years ago, the numerous exoduses finally caught up with them. In 2012-13, they finished fifth. Last season, they slid all the way down to eighth. Without that UCL money, Valencia looked to be in severe trouble.

This is where the story stops being sad and starts getting strange, as things often do when a Singaporean billionaire enters the picture. Peter Lim is a 61-year-old businessman who accrued most of his estimated $2 billion of wealth by getting in on the ground floor of Wilmar International, which started out as a palm oil company and is now a massive agricultural corporation worth $30 billion. He tried to buy Liverpool for £320 million in 2010. After failing to acquire the Reds, he swooped in this past summer to purchase 70 percent of Valencia for €100 million. The takeover took a bit longer than was initially anticipated because Lim took his time renegotiating the club's debt with Bankia, to whom, as of October 2014, Valencia owed €230 million.

Lim is a saint in Valencia for obvious reasons, but as with any billionaire, not everything he does appears to be on the straight-and-narrow. In January 2014, his holding company, Meriton, bought the economic rights of two Benfica players, Rodrigo and André Gomes, for €30 million and €15 million respectively. (At this point, Lim was pretty sure he was going to buy Valencia, even if he hadn't made an official bid yet.) The players were then loaned to Valencia this past summer, with the idea being that they'll be fully transferred to Valencia during the upcoming transfer window. The club also purchased the 29-year-old Enzo Pérez from Benfica this past January for a €25 million, which seemed way above market price. Only somewhat founded suspicion alert: the relationship between Valencia and Benfica might run unethically deep. It doesn't smell right, at the very least, and Lim is close friends with world-renowned super-agent and preposterous sleazeball Jorge Mendes, which is a mark against his character.

If you can push all of that shady business to one side, it's nice to see one of Spain's lesser giants back on their feet. Regardless of the legitimacy of Lim's tactics, the players he's buying are quite good, and his resources allow him to hold onto the talented ones he already has. Valencia once again have the horses to play the audacious, attacking they employed years ago, with a bit of an added gladiatorial edge provided by their energetic Portuguese manager, Nuno.

Paco Alcácer in particular is a gem, a striker whose finest skill is picking the right space to run into. He makes incisions and occasionally blows apart the opposing back line, and his teammates move swiftly into the pockets he opens with his movement. Alcácer is just 21, recently renewed his contract, and now has a release clause of €80 million. He's still learning and isn't yet Valencia's best player, but he's emblematic of their newfound stability. The Mestalla—or, let's be dreamers, Nou Mestalla—can look forward to watching him develop for many years to come.

The present is thrilling, too. La Liga is settling into familiar two-horse race territory with Atlético Madrid falling away from Barcelona and Real Madrid, but as Atleti have given up on defending their league title, they are now faced with the distinct possibility of dropping down to fourth place. Valencia are just a point behind the capital's second club for third in the table with the two sides set to play an important match at the Vicente Calderón this Sunday. When they meet, they will meet as equals: Atleti have been fantastic over the past few seasons, but when they visited the Mestalla in October, Valencia throttled them 3-1, effectively putting the game to bed before it even got started, scoring three goals in the opening 14 minutes.

There is now a buzz around Valencia that has been absent for too long. They're a buccaneering squad with class and vigor; they are at something like their best. They are no longer sadly decaying, but in a process of renewal, with a financially solvent owner who will, one hopes, continue to invest in the club, and a team sheet that's as deep as it has been since the Davids Silva and Villa were wearing black and white. Valencia are back from the brink. Not a moment too soon; La Liga has missed them.