Gunners able to tempt Carvalho to join because of financial difficulties encountered by his part owners…
SEE ALSO: The most expensive Premier League transfers ever.
Arsenal are apparently closing in on a deal to sign William Carvalho from Sporting Lisbon, and Twitter account Messi Minutes has done some digging into the details of the 22-year-old midfield powerhouse’s contract situation with the Portuguese…
It makes for interesting reading.
This is kind of crazy. @18DialSquare86 made me do a little digging into William Carvalho’s wages. Looks like he’s only on £8k a week!
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
That figure is from this edition of @ojogo back in May. For context, that’s less than Francis Coquelin earns! pic.twitter.com/20QGdce4x3
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
Also for context: Sami Khedira currently earns over TEN TIMES what William Carvalho earns at Sporting Lisbon. Could be significant.
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
A few people have been asking me about William Carvalho’s 3rd party ownership situation. I’ve found some really interesting stuff…
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
So Carvalho became a professional player in 2011. In order to finance his first contract, he was part-sold to an investment firm called BES.
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
BES bought 40% of his rights. They have the rights to 40% of his value in the future, but crucially Sporting retained all of his playing
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
registrations, so BES couldn’t sell him without their approval. BES – stands for Banco Espírito Santo, a major private banking institution
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
in Portugal. Unsurprisingly, they also have ties to superagent Jorge Mendes, who now represents Carvalho (probably partly due to this deal!)
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
and to the notorious Benfica Super Fund that help to bring many of the best South American players to Europe via the Portuguese club.
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
Anyway, the interesting thing about Carvalho is that SCP *only* sold 40% when he turned pro. Not more (or even all his rights, as is often
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
the case). Mendes obviously wasn’t betting on him become valuable so quickly! So the most interesting thing about this is that TONIGHT…
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
Banco Espírito Santo have had to be bailed out by the Portuguese government to the tune of almost €5bn. They’re in deeeeep shit. Obviously
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
Señor Carvalho (indeed, all their football dealings…) is only a tiny blip in their €76.6bn worth of assets, but they’ll be in no mood to
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
‘just wait til next year’. Even if it’s just €20m or so, I bet they’ll want to sell up ASAP. So what does this mean? Well, it’s clear that
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
the player would love a move (have you seen how low his wages are?! £8k a week. Tiny), and his part-owners will want to sell. So now we just
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014
need to find a fee that suits Sporting’s need. Oh, and make sure Mendes doesn’t somehow fuck things up, as he is capable of it.
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) August 4, 2014