Who is Monchi, AS Roma’s new sporting director? | Fabrizio Romano

Famed for turning cheap buys into expensive sales, Seville’s director of sport has all but agreed a new deal with the Lupa, having met Franco Baldini on two occasions in London recently to hammer out the details of a new deal.

Set to move to Manchester United last season, Monchi has quite the reputation, boasting a network of over 700 employees dedicated entirely to finding the latest cheap talent, which he ranks in three categories. Those in group A are to be acquired immediately, category B is for “very interesting” players, C for those who need to be followed.

A Coca-Cola addict, the Spaniard turned Dani Alves into a €40 million sale to Barcelona, having acquired the current Juventus player for a mere €500.000. Julio Baptista joined for €2m and left for €25m, flopping at Arsenal like Geoffrey Kondogbia is at Inter, the Frenchman being acquired for €3m from a bankrupt Lens and being shifted to the principality for €20m.

Among the others, Ivan Rakitic cost him €2.5m, Carlos Bacca €7m, Gary Medel €3m… only to be sold for €18m, €30m and €13m respectively.

This all totals to €300m’s worth of profits from the transfer market alone, which include the latest deals of Grzegorz Krychowiak to PSG (€28m profit) and Kevin Gameiro to Atletico Madrid (€24.5m).  

Conscious of his reputation as someone who wins secondary prizes (Sevilla have picked up a stunning five Europa Leagues under his tutelage) a recent Monchi quote should help Roma fans look at things positively:

“No team will ever feature a banner saying ‘What great profits, thanks guys!”. A team needs to win, and reinvest. Otherwise you’re nothing more than a shop, unloved by fans”.

Fabrizio Romano, (@FabrizioRomano), adapted by @EdoDalmonte