:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/ZC5N72OKPRBQVK25AWW3SJN5JQ.jpg "Sporting Cristal awarded: the 13 million dollars he has won for being such a cupbearer")
And now more than ever, Joao Grimaldo’s play and Irven Ávila’s goal are priceless. Yes, the goal converted in the 96th minute that gave Sporting Cristal the victory over Huracán earned the Rimense team a totally new budget box, millionaire even for the Peruvian reality.
A team that no longer enjoys the benefits of Backus, must now appeal to his name, his history and nights like Thursday’s to add numbers to his wallet. And the Copa Libertadores today is the bank with a sure profit. The move to the group stage guarantees a prize of 3 million dollars to the sky blue team, plus the 1.1 million that it already has for the previous phases.
In other words, in total today, Cristal adds 4.1 million dollars as cup prizes, a figure that is close to the maximum amount that a Peruvian team has won in recent years.
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RAIN OF MILLIONS
In terms of sporting success, Cienciano has achieved the maximum by winning the Copa Sudamericana in 2003, while Cristal and Universitario played in the final of the Copa Libertadores. But the millionaire prizes have only been given in recent years, especially since 2017, when the third parties of the Libertadores qualified for the South American.
The last great international participation of a Peruvian club is that of Real Garcilaso in 2013, when it reached the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores. To that is added that of Melgar and the semifinals of the Copa Sudamericana last year. But the economic prizes were far from the millions that are distributed now.
It is only worth saying that Cristal, with the pass from phase 2 to the group phase, has already won more than Real Garcilaso, who reached the quarterfinals. He has also already surpassed what was achieved by Melgar by getting into the top four of the South American.
Since the prizes increased by Conmebol, since 2018, Melgar is the club that has won the most prizes in a single tournament and it did so in 2019, when it played the Copa Libertadores and from there it went to the South American.
Melgar followed the path that Cristal is currently following. From phase 2 he reached the group stage, securing all the economic prizes. Then he continued his international participation by being third in his group and reached the round of 16 in the South American. Adding both tournaments, Melgar achieved a total of 4,425 million dollars in prizes, little more than what Cristal has already achieved this year, 4,100 million.
And Cristal can continue adding to these prizes since this edition of the Copa Libertadores grants financial incentives for each victory achieved in the group stage. It’s $300,000 per win. That is to say, the celestial ones are two victories away from becoming the most winner of economic prizes in the same tournament.
In addition, if he advances to the round of 16 of the Libertadores, an additional 1.250 million dollars await him. Or if they are third in their group and go to the South American, it will be 500 thousand dollars for playing the playoffs with the second in each group of said tournament.
Conmebol 2023 Awards
TOTAL MILLIONS
If we make a sum of the last five tournaments, since 2019 when Conmebol raised the prizes for each team that participates in the group stage to 3 million, Cristal is the one that has added the most money only in the Copa Libertadores.
The Rimense team has participated in the five editions, four of them directly in the group stage and one in which it was in phase 2 (2020), for which it adds a total of 13,600 million dollars, considering what it has achieved be taken to your coffers in this edition.
| only liberators | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Alliance – 3 million Melgar – 3 million Crystal – 4.1 mls Huancayo – 400 thousand | |
| 2022 | Alliance – 3 million Crystal – 3ml University – 500 thousand Vallejo – 400 thousand | |
| 2021 | Crystal – 3ml University – 3 million Ayacucho FC – 500 thousand Vallejo – 350 thousand | |
| 2020 | Binational – 3 million Alliance – 3 million Crystal – 500 thousand University – 850 thousand | |
| 2019 | Crystal – 3ml Alliance – 3 million Melgar – 4 million Garcilaso – 350 thousand | |
| TOTAL | Crystal – 13.6 million Alliance – 12 million Melgar – 7 million University – 3.8 million | |
It is followed by Alianza Lima, which has had four participations in the group stage. The intimates qualified directly, so they took three million dollars for each of them to add a net 12 million.
Far behind are Melgar with 7 million dollars for only two group stages, including the current one, and Universitario, who stayed twice in previous phases and has only played in the 2021 group stage to add 3.850 million dollars.
The Copa Libertadores is sporting glory, but the millions it delivers are the real reasons that make this tournament more interesting in the game behind the ball.
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Source: Elcomercio
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have a keen interest in sports and have written for many different publications. I am currently working as an author at 24 News Recorder. I cover mostly sports news but also write about other topics such as current affairs and politics. I have a strong interest in social media and how it can be used to engage with audiences.
