Re: 12/13 Football Thread
They deal with all those third-party investment organisations that own the rights to a certain percentage of a player though, so those transfer fees probably aren't entirely accurate.
That said, they still would've earned a sizeable chunk from all the selling of players. It is a bit easier to buy South American players when you're based in Portugal too - not that they haven't made money off players from other continents!
In general those investment organisations don't account for more than 10% at the time of the sell.
Porto generally uses those investment funds to buy players, who often will pay for 50% of the player. Generally Porto ends up buying those percentages back as soon as a player looks to "stick" to certain standards for an extra fee, but still earn most of the final transfer fee.
Another 2 years of this and the stadium will be paid for, our debts are reducing and hopefully we will be even more competitive.
It's a myth that those players are easier to buy when you're in Portugal. More often than not, Porto has to compete with offers from Italian and Spanish clubs, who have a treasure chest incomparably richer than Porto. But they have a reputation for making stars, and selling them at a high price, which makes it an attractive club to make the crossover.
By far the most impressive part, is their scouting network. Deco and Hulk who are 2 of the biggest stars who have recently played for the club were discovered respectively in the Portuguese 2nd division and Japanese 2nd division! Pepe came from Maritimo of Portugal, Ricardo Carvalho was raised through the ranks, Paulo Ferreira came from Leiria in Portugal, etc...
Porto has already acquired the rights of 6 players since the end of the Portuguese comp, all young promises, 4 of them Portuguese. and at a total cost of less than 1M euros!
I will bet my right testicle that at least one of them will rise to the top and end up at some very rich club after Porto wins something important again...
