OUTROS
EXCLUSIVE TPO Fund will pocket 95% of the €2.5m Juventus paid for Pereira
Pereira is seen as a star in the making; a graceful, extremely gifted midfielder who could be throwing his weight around at the J Stadium sooner than you think.
That's where the good news ends, unfortunately, as it turns out that the Brazilian club will only earn 5% of the transfer fee. Why? Because 95% of Matheus Pereira is owned by Elenko Sports, an agency run by Fernando Garcia.
How did this happen? Luckily, a great piece on the Meu Timao blog was able to clear things up for us.
Back in March 2014, Garcia got Pereira to sign his first contract with Corinthians, obtaining a 30% stake in the player's economic rights in the bargain. The above article claims that the youngster was directly "sold" to Garcia by his family. That's nothing unusual for a country like Brasil.
One month later, Pereira saw another 30% go to Garcia, the club obtaining 750.000 reais (€185.000) in return, only for that money to be used to partly cover a €700.000 debt the club had with Garcia. It was his 10% commission for Cleber (an Elenko player)'s move to Hamburg, and another sum connected to midfielder Ralf.
Finally, July 2014 saw 35% more of Matheus be handed over to Elenko for 1 million reais (approx €248.000). Once again, that money was deducted from another outstanding debt, this time for the 3 million reais Corinthians paid to Fourth Division side Penapolense for 25-year-old midfielder Petros [who has since moved to Betis Seville ed.].
You'll be happy to know that Penapolense is also owned by Garcia.
What we have here is a rather clear picture: that of a club that is heavily indebted to an agent, and who pays it off by mortgaging its future talent. In other words, Corinthians are selling off their future in order to stay alive.
Have things changed? No, they haven't. The same website has since reported that Garcia only had to write off debts for €433.000 in order to "buy" Pereira.
Something needs to be said about Juventus' role: as they're dealing with Corinthians, and with Corinthians only (and it would be odd if they didn't), the Bianconeri aren't breaking any rules. What the Timao does with that money is its own business.
That said, it would be harder to claim that Giuseppe Marotta & Co don't know. If we could find this kind of information from public, open sources, why shouldn't he? There's more: if Juventus know, and decided to go ahead with the acquisition anyway, we cannot pretend that nothing has happened.
To those who argue that €125.000 is no small chunk of change... well, it is in the football world. It's hard to see what that kind of sum can do, especially for a player who is worth 20 times as much, and could well make it to 50 in a few short years.
Though it's only my opinion, wouldn't it just be better to declare bankruptcy and start again?
@pippoevai, translated by @EdoDalmonte
