How Monaco managed to sign Juve, Man Utd target for just € 10 cents

16 mar 2017

AS Monaco stunned the whole European football yesterday night when they managed to seal a dramatic 3-1 win over Manchester City and make it through the quarter finals of the Champions League. Many AS Monaco players are claiming the spotlight this season both in Europe and in France. Radamel Falcao, Kylian Mbappe, Tiemoue Bakayoko are putting down some stunning performances for the French side alongside Brazilian starlet Fabinho who can either play as right-back or centre midfielder.

Manchester United and Napoli made several attempts to sign the 24-year-old last summer and Juventus are now interested as well. Fabinho had begun his career with Paulinia and Fluminense in Brazil and in 2012 he moved to Europe signing for Rio Ave. Powerful agent Jorge Mendes added him to his client list taking him on loan to Real Madrid where, however, he only played one game with the senior team.

In summer 2013 he moved to AS Monaco for an official fee of € 5 million but, in reality, Fabinho only cost AS Monaco € 10 cents. How? Thanks to Third Part Ownerships. TPOs are illegal and banned by FIFA since the 1st of May 2015, but Fabinho moved to the Stade Luis II two years before the ruling.

The operation that brought Fabinho to AS Monaco was carried out by the Cyprus-based Investment Fund Browsefish Limited which was owned by AS Monaco’s no. 1 Dmitri Rybolovlev and Jorge Mendes although the latter’s offshore investment fund ‘Gestifute’ does not appear in any document regarding the player’s transfer.

Federico Zanon, translated and adapted by Lorenzo Bettoni