(Bloomberg) — Shares of Juventus Football Club (MI:JUVE) dropped as much as 24 percent after the Italian team was knocked out of Europe’s elite club competition by Dutch outsiders AFC Ajax NV (AS:AJAX) on Tuesday. The Amsterdam-based club’s stock soared.
Juventus, whose stock lost about 400 million euros ($453 million) in market value at its low, went ahead in the the twenty-eighth minute, courtesy of 34-year-old, five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, but Ajax’s youth prevailed, with goals from two academy players — 21-year-old Donny van de Beek and 19-year-old Matthijs de Ligt — to send the club into its first Champions League semi-final since 1997.
Ajax now has the chance to boost its annual revenue by more than a third. Reaching the semis has earned Ajax an added 12 million euros ($13.6 million) in prize money, with a further 19 million euros potentially up for grabs if the team progresses further. That’s before ticketing and merchandising revenue, and greater leverage with commercial sponsors for a club that’s earned a place back on global soccer’s biggest stage. Ajax had adjusted revenue of about 92 million euros in 2018, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
For Juventus, it’s a setback for the club backed by the billionaire Agnelli family, whose purchase of Ronaldo last year was seen as in part driven by a desire to win the competition. It’s the first time the Champions League semi-final will not feature the Portuguese superstar for nine years, according to the statistics website Opta.
Juve’s stock had rallied since the quarter-final draw last month as bookmakers made the Turin team known as “La Vecchia Signora,” or “The Old Lady” a firm favorite to progress. The stock soared 17 percent on March 13 after a Ronaldo hat trick turned around a two-goal deficit against Spain’s Atletico Madrid to secure a quarter-final place.
Ajax jumped 8.8 percent to 18.65 euros at 9:10 a.m. in Amsterdam, valuing the company at 342.8 million euros. Juventus plunged 22 percent to 1.32 euros for a market value of 1.3 billion euros.
