gestifute
gestifute international is one of a series of irish - based special purpose firms established by mendes as part of his gestifute company .
gestifute later (or before the deal) became the agent of the player. that season gestifute also represented coentrão in his €30 million deal to city rival
4 comments to fifa registered agents, part 2. gestifute the route to success
gestifute did not respond to questions. jorge mendes will expect to be busy this summer .
in 2004 some players represented by gestifute were transferred for record prices. the first one was
as the latter was the piece - weigh of internazionale to sign quaresma. quaresma himself joined inter for €18. 6m plus pelé, was also represented by gestifute. in june 2009, gestifute signed
gestifute international limited. free business summary taken from official companies house information. free alerts. registered as ie386618
according to the most recent accounts for gestifute, the company paid out a dividend of €12 million during 2015 .
the market never stops turning. and with every turn, mendes and gestifute earn another fee, another commission .
gestifute apparently received 30 percent of the transfer fee for their part ownership of the player' s economic rights .
4. according to the regulatory definitions; # jorgemendes and # gestifute international limited are an intermediary (hence registered with the fa) and start sgpa s. a, the portuguese holding company of gestifute, is an organisation. urltoken
founded by mendes in 1996, gestifute provides agent services for some of the wealthiest and most famous footballers in the world .
it seems from gestifute’s transfer and client history that they are fairly satisfied with the area almost under their control: portugal .
gestifute is a portugese powerhouse that represents some of the very best soccer players in the world. gestifute is headlined by super agent jorge mendes, as well as a roster of bonafide superstars (including thiago silva, james rodriguez, and christiano ronaldo). although gestifute represents almost half of their next closest competitor (stellar football), they have earned twice as much money in cumulative commissions .
according to gestifute’s website, start sgps sa is the holding company used by mendes for all of his sports - related business dealings .
fifa registered agents, part 2. gestifute the route to success « untold arsenal: supporting the club, the manager and the team
china' s fosun buy a player who they represent through gestifute. win - win. now both his representatives and economic rights holder .
if he had paid on a yearly basis, gestifute added, then he would have ended up paying less tax than he eventually paid .
gestifute has hit back at these claims and said in a statement in december that the stars it represents are fully compliant with their tax obligations .
andy quinn, a gestifute director, is also the director of another irish company with football interests, multisports & image management (mim) .
among its deals, gestifute was involved in previous transfers involving superstar cristiano ronaldo, showing the company is itself a major player in the business .
after subtracting the €12 million dividend paid from the company’s full - year profit, gestifute shareholders’ funds rose by €6 million to €13. 8 million .
there is no tax evasion scheme … there has never been any hiding nor any intention to hide anything ,
gestifute said in a statement .
ronaldo' s agency, gestifute, said in a statement tuesday that
it is clear that the player did not try to evade taxes .
the pattern that is emerging, is a network within portugal’s club sides, which stands to reason as gestifute is portuguese and primarily deals with portuguese talent .
both cristiano ronaldo and jose mourinho are fully compliant with their tax obligations with the spanish and british tax authorities ,
gestifute said in a statement .
according to the latest reports, guo has signed a deal with gestifute to set up a sports brokerage for the trading of athletes between sports clubs in china .
for €40 million. gestifute and orel b. v. received a total of €3. 705 million agent fee (unknown ratio between the two company) .
in its statement, gestifute said that
neither cristiano ronaldo nor jose mourinho have ever been involved in legal proceedings regarding the commission of a tax offense
.
gestifute involved in numbers of high profile move in european transfer market, such as cristiano ronaldo. before fifa set up a new law to restrict third parties ownership (with
significant influence
), gestifute was actively involved in third parties ownership. however, it in fact conflict of interests, as gestifute was both the owner and the agent of the player. after 2008, gestifute only received agent fees for the deals the company broke, and not actively in third parties ownership, however a portion of the million transfer deal (such as 5 %) was already half of, or even exceed the annual salary of the player .
overall, the most recent accounts for gestifute show that the company made a gross profit of just over €27 million, almost double the €14 million reported the year before .
a spokesman for gestifute dismissed any suggestion of a dispute, however, saying :
the transfer was completed within the regulations and we are not aware of any complaints .
cristiano ronaldo ’s agency gestifute have published a document disclosing the real madrid' s forward' s income for last year in an attempt to stave off accusations of tax avoidance .
wolves buy a player than real madrid wanted... . jorge mendes everybody. bet he' s sold to madrid for 4 times the money in the summer. # gestifute
guo guangchang is teaming up with portuguese super broker gestifute, whose main business is engineering the deals that allow european players to move from one soccer club to another. photo: bloomberg
in this case, guo is teaming up with portuguese super broker gestifute, whose main business is engineering the deals that allow european players to move from one soccer club to another .
in a statement, gestifute said: “cristiano ronaldo communicated to the spanish tax agency on 30 march all the information about his assets, as can be shown in the attached documentation .
dinamo moscow has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the portuguese company gestão de carreiras de profissionais desportivos, s. a. (better known as gestifute), and polaris sports limited .
mediapart said the system gestifute employed for its various clients, using a network of offshore accounts and companies, represented a total potential loss to tax authorities of at least 185 million euros .
shanghai foyo, a company majority owned by fosun’s chairman, guo guangchang, bought stakes in mendes’s agency gestifute’s holding company, start. in january 2016 gestifute and shanghai foyo launched a marketing and football agency joint venture in chinese football with a glitzy event in shanghai attended by guo, mendes and senior figures from benfica and monaco, clubs where mendes has been key to transfers .
gestifute international limited was set up on wednesday the 26th of may 2004. their current address is 18 - 19 college green, dublin 2, and the company status is normal. the company' s current directors luis correia and andy quinn have been the director of 32 other irish companies between them; 15 of which are now closed. gestifute international limited has 2 shareholders .
guo said he chose gestifute because it’s one of the premier names in its field. fosun is usually better known for its investments in areas like insurance, real estate and other financial products .
one of the publications, the french investigative portal mediapart, said ronaldo and his portuguese compatriot mourinho had benefited from a tax optimisation system developed by their agent jorge mendes, who owns gestifute .
for €25 million plus €11 million bonus. two year before, gestifute signed 10% economic rights from benfica for €1 million, which benfica the remain 20% earlier in august for €2 million .
ronaldo' s agency, gestifute, has explicitly denied the charges, going so far as to post a statement on the agency' s website they claim has been issued by the spanish tax agency confirming that ronaldo is current with his tax obligations. gestifute went on to say on the site that ronaldo
never has been involved in any conflict with the tax authorities of any country .
the football league, too, decided in december that mendes’s role was no cause for concern, despite rules dictating that agents cannot have a controlling influence on clubs. although a subsidiary of fosun owns a slice of gestifute’s holding company, the football league determined there was no conflict of interest. (mendes and gestifute did not respond to several requests to discuss their plans for wolves for this article. )
bebé' s move to old trafford earlier this month was negotiated by gestifute, the portuguese management company headed by jorge mendes, the representative of cristiano ronaldo, jose mourinho and united pair anderson and nani .
ederson, manchester city’s new brazilian goalkeeper, is a case in point: he spent time at rio ave before joining benfica. gestifute, silva campos confirmed, had owned 20 percent of his economic rights .
qfil also has links to gestifute international, an irish - based company controlled by football super agent jorge mendes, who represents real madrid star cristiano ronaldo, manchester united manager jose mourinho and valencia winger nani .
meanwhile, leading overseas players are likely to be introduced to china and vice versa. soccer training organizations will be jointly established by foyo and gestifute in the hope of sending promising chinese players to overseas clubs .
the deal has, however, been criticized in russia. the player agent dmitri seluk, for example, who is no stranger to murky transfer investment deals himself, has criticised the deal between dinamo and gestifute .
carlos osório de castro is said to have acted as gestifute’s lawyer for many years; he responded to an email from the guardian by saying “it’s my firm’s policy not to comment on any issue regarding the work we perform [ or are alleged to have performed ] for our clients. i’d just like to point out that my firm represents a lot of players not connected to gestifute, along with several clubs and football federations and investors. ”
jorge mendes (centre) and peter kenyon (left) are two figures who have used tpo to their advantage, with their respective agencies, gestifute and doyen, at the centre of most of the third party dealings .
gestifute is owned by jorge paulo mendes agustinho of portugal. he has been voted on two consecutive occasions the best football agent in the world (how nice). he has a business partner, luis carreia also portuguese .
the following is a list of players who have been at the same club as jose mourinho whilst being with gestifute and in brackets; the transfer fee paid by mourinho, where no brackets appear mourinho did not sign the player .
chinese soccer aficionados will have a better chance to see world - famous soccer players in the near future as foyo culture and entertainment co ltd－a subsidiary of investment conglomerate fosun international ltd－has joined hands with the highly celebrated portuguese footballers agency gestifute .
following the recent accusations, which were published by a group of european newspapers last weekend, gestifute released a photograph of ronaldo’s ‘model 720’ tax return, in a bid to prove their client declared the necessary assests and rights to spanish authorities .
the following summer, after josé mourinho, also a client of mendes' s, moved to chelsea as the manager, chelsea signed carvalho, for €30m, and ferreira, for €20m. if gestifute' s 5% economic rights were still held in each player – gestifute declined to confirm that – mendes' s agency would have made €2. 5m, on top of the €2. 4m in agents' fees which, the guardian has revealed, chelsea paid at the time .
+ + + + # fassone # milan # mendes + + + giungono conferme che l’incontro di ieri a # madrid non ha riguardato aspetti societari ma possibili agevolazioni per il # mercato rossonero con giocatori legati a # gestifute (alexrn 10. 35 )
the deal between gestifute and dinamo moscow was announced on monday april 11 on the club’s official homepage. the director of gestifute, luís correia, told urltoken that the two companies intend to cooperate with dinamo at all levels including marketing: “we have a longstanding relationship with dinamo. from the very first visit to russia, we knew that they want to create a really big club, a high level club. we are impressed by dinamo’s history, and are very excited to be a part of it in the future. ”
gestifute has refuted any suggestions that it acted improperly, but fifa - registered agent gonçalo reis, who arranged bebe' s free transfer from third division club estrela da amadora to guimaraes in july, insisted he was left on the sidelines when guimaraes sold the player .
manchester united' s £7. 4 million summer purchase of portuguese winger bébé resulted in selling club vitória de guimarães receiving just 70 per cent of the fee, with the remaining 30 per cent being allocated to the gestifute sports agency, who part - owned the player .
gestifute, in turn, hopes to benefit from both growing its profile in russia and also increasing its player portfolio: “we are going to cooperate with the club on all levels including with young players from the academia, but also through marketing. ” correia also pointed out that they have similar cooperation agreements with a number of other clubs in europe, but that in russia “dinamo are the first club we have established a link with. ” correia stated that the 2018 world cup has been a prime motivator for gestifute to expand into russia .
paris (reuters) - the soccer agency gestifute has denied that clients including portuguese star cristiano ronaldo and manchester united manager jose mourinho are involved in any tax evasion after a media consortium reported that they had used tax havens to handle tens of millions of euros in earnings .
in the list of signings now published annually by the fa, the “intermediaries” involved in that deal are stated to have been carlos osório de castro, a lawyer based in portugal who acted for cavaleiro, and valdir cardoso, a portuguese agent understood to work for gestifute, which represented the club .
speaking to sport - express seluk declared this deal “a complete idiocy! ” seluk believes that the last time dinamo cooperated with mendes, the club was cheated out of €89 million. furthermore, seluk pointed at valencia cf, and as monaco fc —both clubs have cooperation agreements with gestifute—as examples of where gestifute’s business model has hurt clubs on the field. “you will see neither club will play in the champions league! dinamo will not perform well with him either! ! ” asked whether there will once again be an influx of portuguese players at dinamo, seluk responded “definitely! portuguese, and brazilians. ”
wolves has never hidden the fact that mendes is a “known associate” of fosun, in the words of the managing director laurie dalrymple, though the club has strenuously denied that he is overseeing its transfer policy. wolves’s squad this year, club executives noted, will include a number of new additions not looked after by mendes’s agency, gestifute .
for these agents to claim an area they have to have permanent contacts within a football club or scouting network. below i will show you through the transfer history of gestifute what an agent can achieve when he has a solid network within his chosen area and contact with a foreign network. in brackets total transfer fees exchanged over various moves .
founded in 1996, gestifute has become one of the most renowned soccer player agencies in europe, involving a number of high - profile players such as cristiano ronaldo, james rodriguez and david de gea. its founder jorge mendes, 50, has won the agent of the year honor of the globe soccer awards for six consecutive years since 2010 .
telegraph sport understands that gestifute, headed by jorge mendes, the representative of cristiano ronaldo and jose mourinho, received its share of bébé' s transfer fee following united' s direct payment to guimarães, who signed the 20 year - old from estrela da amadora following the cancellation of his contract due to non - payment of wages just two months earlier .
in response to a detailed series of questions about mendes' s earnings on the bébé deal and reis' s complaint, a spokesman for mendes' s gestifute agency said :
there is no basis for any action against us in relation to bébé .
she also said :
we never discuss publicly details of the deals brokered by us .
mendes' contacts in the game are unparalleled; his ability to find clubs willing to pay big for portuguese talent is also without equal. his most famous clients are cristiano ronaldo and mourinho, but his gestifute stable oversees the careers of hundreds of players and managers, and he has been responsible for the vast majority of the major sales of portugal players over the past two decades .
there was a similar influx at dynamo moscow in 2005, followed by further financial problems (though the russian club last year signed a “memorandum of understanding” once again with gestifute). at valencia, meanwhile, supporters turned on nuno, the coach. they came to see him as a mendes pawn, and protested against the ownership of peter lim, another close friend of the portuguese agent .
but there is also a network in brazil and an emerging network in argentina. so gestifute must liaise with other agents / agencies from south america to arrange the transfers of players into portugal and within a few years arrange for their high profile transfers in to one of the “big five” leagues consisting of germany, france, italy, spain and england (with the odd exception of russia) .
now i’m not suggesting that anything shady is going on with gestifute and mourinho, as many a manager takes players with them wherever they go but i do believe it to be suggestive of a possible conflict of interests. plus i think this suggests that agents / agencies can on occasion have too much influence with regards to transfers and fees especially when the buying manager is also one of their clients .
furthermore, mendes has openly admitted that he, and gestifute, have been involved in third - party ownership deals, and furthermore believes that fifa’s ban on tpo contracts, which came into affect in may 2015, is illegal. speaking to the news agency reuters on january 30, 2015 mendes stated that banning the practice is “ illegal, completely illegal, illegal, illegal, both things illegal. ”
it was in 2003 that gestifute first started player trading within the uk, utilising tony henry’s (formation) network of contacts. however over time this partnership broke down. the final act of betrayal was when mourinho signed for chelsea and jorge mendes cut the agency formation out of any further deals and dealt directly with chelsea (abramovich). a court case is still on - going in portugal over this partnership breakdown .
in a statement, wolves said: “it is a matter of public record that fosun have a percentage stake in the gestifute company headed up by jorge mendes. jorge is available as an adviser to the owners, in the same way as many other agents and influential figures within football are. wolves have signed players within his portfolio, including last year’s player of the season helder costa, as well as players from other intermediaries .
when another portuguese player, joão teixeira, joined wolves on loan from benfica, the fa’s list of transactions states that he did not have any agent advising him at all, while andy quinn, a director of gestifute international based in ireland, acted for wolves. the portuguese defender silvio, who signed from atlético madrid in july, is not listed in the fa document so the agents on that deal have not been publicly disclosed .
this is just one example of the route an agent / agency or multiple agents use to get their clients in to the biggest paying leagues in the world. small networks either side of the atlantic working together and not the clubs scouting networks as all good managers would have you believe. on the odd occasion that a gestifute client has skipped portugal they have ended up at arsenal (carlos vela) & barcelona (giovani dos santos) .
at the point of the pyramid, though, are the world’s elite, the clubs to whom mendes sells the very best players at the very highest prices. even here, though, his influence can run deeper than most. when his client mourinho was the manager of real madrid, mendes regularly used mourinho’s office at the club’s training ground as a base from which to conduct gestifute business, including meetings with potential investors into other clubs. clubs like wolverhampton .
both gestifute, and polaris sports limited are owned by the portuguese player agent jorge mendes, who counts some of the most prominent players in the world, cristiano ronaldo (real madrid), james rodrigues (real madrid), ángel di maria (paris saint - germain), diego costa (chelsea fc), and william carvalho (sporting lisbon), as well as the prominent coach josé mourinho (currently without a club), among his clients .
recently, fifa has started investigating the position of quality investment fund, set up by the former chelsea ceo peter kenyon and co - owned by caa sports international and gestifute (duff and panja, 2011). other third - party ownership projects such as traffic, benfica star fund, sport investment fund and soccer br1 have been set up to directly invest in clubs and academies by controlling their key asset –players’ transfer rights– without being legally responsible for the club with respect to football governing bodies .
despite being a controversial agent himself, seluk might have a point, as gestifute will most certainly view dinamo as a club that can be used to develop players, rather than as a potential title winning machine. furthermore, mendes’ track record of tpo deals, and the fact that clubs can be used to park player contracts, without the player actually playing there, means that dinamo might see very few talented players moving to the club. at the same time dinamo’s poor financial position forces the club into this deal, which could very well turn out to be a deal with the devil .
ronaldo, di maria (£29m), fabio coentrao (£26. 4m), pepe, ricardo carvalho (£26. 4m), jose bosingwa (£0. 8m & £18m on two occasions), paulo ferreira (£1. 8m & £17. 5m on two occasions), adriano fabiano rossato (£1. 7m), henrique hilário (free), tiago cardoso mendes (£10. 5m), ricardo andrade quaresma bernardo (£21. 6m). and at the opposite end of the scale mourinho has only ever released one player attached to gestifute filipe oliveira. good business if you can get it .
scolari' s move to chelsea is just the latest multi - million pound move to be brokered by the portuguese superagent. jason burt reports
when jorge mendes was asked to write a column for the portuguese sports daily, o jogo, during the european championship, the title that was originally suggested, somewhat jokingly, was
my millions
. mendes said no to that, instead agreeing to the column being called
the value of euros
which could, even so, be interpreted two ways. it' s not just the football competition; it' s the currency .
mendes' name doesn' t mean much to the average football fan. but it should. still just 42, he is one of the most powerful men – maybe in terms of deals the most powerful man – in the game. mendes is also an agent, a shrewd businessman and a clever media operator with his own management company, website, which employs full - time journalists, and contacts that spread from his portuguese base throughout the world, particularly in the valuable markets of south america .
pini zahavi has long been regarded as the number one super - agent but, this summer, as with last year, mendes' name is being mentioned by the biggest clubs in europe as the man with the greater influence. he has just taken jose mourinho to internazionale and luiz felipe scolari to chelsea to make the pair the highest - paid club managers in world football .
that mendes has found time to write a column is astonishing. he has been, and is set to continue to be, the busiest agent in the business and makes many millions indeed. having been allowed by scolari to have access to the portugal team hotel during the european championship, mendes has been a visible presence at the opulent lakeside complex as he looks after his clients and plots their futures .
referred to as a
tranquil oasis
in the hotel blurb, the beau rivage in neuchâtel has been anything but that for mendes. not only has he schemed to get scolari to stamford bridge but he is also at the heart of deciding what will happen to his star client, cristiano ronaldo, who wants to move to real madrid. then there is deco, ricardo carvalho, ricardo quaresma. the list goes on .
not a single player, it seems, leaves portugal, or moves clubs, without mendes being involved and it has already been calculated, probably correctly, that scolari' s squad is the most valuable in the tournament on the transfer market. and mendes represents the eight biggest names .
after securing scolari' s three - year contract, worth between £5. 5m and £6. 25m, with chelsea, negotiating first with peter kenyon, the club' s chief executive, and then directly with roman abramovich, mendes, on wednesday, flew to italy to meet with mourinho, who has returned from holiday, to direct inter' s transfer dealings .
with scolari' s appointment it appears inter' s chances of securing carvalho have been thwarted – the defender can, however, expect to receive a new, improved contract even though he has four years left on his present deal – although the italian club will battle with chelsea for deco and quaresma. either way, for mendes, it' s a win - win situation. he represents both players, both clubs, both managers .
mendes is a straight - forward character who has earned a reputation for honesty – he would rather tell someone straight that he can' t give them information rather than lie – and loyalty. a former semi - professional footballer, mendes also has, according to his associates, a brilliant eye for talented players and is a terrific scout who is quick to sign up those who catch his eye .
he doesn' t forget either, and still talks to those journalists and football people who helped him in his early days. mendes also learned a very valuable lesson at the start of his career as he watched the waning of another agent, jose veiga. veiga was the number one agent in portugal which meant he was the number one agent with porto, the club where the most lucrative deals are cut. he took luis figo to real madrid, he was involved in zinedine zidane' s move also but he fell out with porto after sergio conceicao, a midfielder, was sold to lazio .
veiga had lined up a deal for him to go to deportivo la coruña and, angry, went to war with porto. inevitably he was cut out of the picture which allowed mendes to step forward. he seized his opportunity and realised it was better to work with, rather than against, big clubs and other agents which is why one of his most significant alliances was with zahavi .
the israeli was the biggest, so mendes wanted to work with him. but now the biggest deals appear to go through mendes first. last summer it was pepe to real madrid for £25m, anderson and nani to manchester united for £46m, simao to atletico madrid for £16. 5m. mind - blowing figures. mendes was quick to assemble a superb roster of players and was a constant presence at the soccer schools and youth teams throughout portugal, spotting and signing up the sporting lisbon pair of ronaldo and quaresma before others could get close. he also forged alliances in south america which netted him anderson, for example .
part of his way of working is to jointly buy players with clubs, such as anderson whose registration was acquired for £6. 3m with porto eventually paying mendes £3m when the midfielder was sold to united. mendes is also good at looking after his clients. anderson, ronaldo and nani all receive frequent house visits from him while his nephew, luis correia, who works for him as a financial adviser, is friends with all three .
but mendes is also tough. time and again players have moved to him, from other agents, just before they have moved clubs. even mourinho did it. his agent, jorge baidek, a relatively small - time brazilian who he had known since his coaching days at uniao leiria, had lined up a move for him to liverpool. that was until mendes intervened, armed with offers from chelsea and, ironically considering subsequent events, inter. mourinho, having led porto to the champions league final, which they then won, dropped baidek .
every portuguese player who then followed mourinho, including paulo ferreira, tiago mendes and maniche, were mendes' clients. similarly nani' s move to united only followed the winger' s decision to drop his agent, ana almeida, and jose bosingwa' s £16m transfer to chelsea was facilitated by mendes even though he wasn' t the right - back' s agent. he is the gatekeeper. and those gates are golden .
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the agent who claims to have discovered the manchester united forward bebé says he was cut out of the player' s £7. 4 million transfer from vitoria de guimaraes – 48 hours before being told he no longer acted for the 20 year - old .
in the spotlight: manchester united' s recent recruit bebé has hit the big time... in no time
reis said :
i am unhappy because of the way things have happened. as an agent, i expected more from the other agent involved .
i know i don' t have the contacts at the top clubs because i have only been doing this for a year, but when [ jorge ] mendes arrived, i was out of the transaction .
i have not spoken to bebé since he went to united. the only contact has been when i received a renunciation card on aug 13 – two days after he signed for united .
it' s a sad thing that the one who discovers a player does not stay with him when big clubs are interested. but there are four variables in this business .
the first is the player, then the guy who discovers him and takes a bet on him. then there are big agents like mendes and, finally, the big clubs .
similarly, a united spokesman said :
we signed the player having fully adhered to the correct procedure. this appears to be a dispute between other parties of which manchester united has no part of .
reis has ruled out a formal complaint to fifa after insisting that he had a' moral duty' to ensure bebe' s career is not affected .
he said :
i am not complaining to fifa because contracts with players are very fragile. they can renounce them at any moment .
no - one told me what was happening [ with united ], but i do not want to create an obstacle for bebé. i made a moral compromise because i wanted the best for bebé .
it' s very simple. a year ago, he had nothing in football, but then i put him into guimaraes, he plays two or three games in pre - season and then there is big interest from big clubs .
when i discovered bebé, he was a poor boy with nothing in his life. i supported him as a father and he sometimes called me' father'. our relationship was stronger than just a player and his manager .
bebé has yet to play for united and was left out of the club' s reserve squad against manchester city' s second string on tuesday night .
in terms of the transfer fee, i have no doubts about bebé' s quality. sooner or later, he will jump out and show people how good he is .
emilio macedo, president of vitoria guimaraes, defended the involvement of mendes in the negotiations with united. he said :
jorge mendes has been the bulwark of this transfer .
with all due respect to other agents, this country owes him a lot because he handles large transfers and brings money into the country because this is like an export .
a spokesperson for manchester united insisted on wednesday that
manchester united made no payments to any agent
in order to conclude the transfer of bébé, who marked his full debut for the club with a goal in the 3 - 2 carling cup victory against wolves on tuesday .
united became the sole owners of bébé' s registration following his transfer in august, but while dual ownership of players contravenes premier league regulations, the practice is common and within the rules in europe and south america .
bébé' s move to united has been dogged by controversy, with old trafford manager sir alex ferguson admitting that he had not seen the player play before sanctioning the purchase .
ferguson then hit out at what he described as
vicious
attempts to undermine the player amid accusations that he was not even good enough to play for united' s reserves .
united could have signed the player for nothing when he became a free agent following the breaking of his contract with amadora .
but bébé' s move to guimarães was swiftly followed by interest from a host of leading clubs, with an unnamed turkish club prepared to pay €6 million for a 50 per cent share of bébé prior to united' s move .
manchester united' s manager sir alex ferguson and his trio of unlikely summer signings, from left, bébé, javier hernández and chris smalling. photograph: tim hales / ap
sir alex ferguson has admitted he broke the habit of a lifetime in signing the unknown portuguese bébé without having seen him play. normally the manchester united manager prefers to watch a prospect in person or at least on video before making up his mind, yet he paid £7. 4m for the striker formally known as tiago manuel dias correia wholly on the strength of personal recommendations .
why a manager who insists on looking for value in the transfer market was persuaded to pay so much for a player yet to appear at the top level and who moved to vitória guimarães on a free just months ago is one of the mysteries behind the most unexpected summer signing, but ferguson clearly believes he needed to act before other clubs moved in .
sometimes you have to go on instinct and sometimes you have to trust your staff as well ,
the united manager said .
this was a first for me, but we rate our scouting department very highly and our scout in portugal was adamant we needed to do something, and quickly .
ferguson' s former deputy, carlos queiroz, now in charge of the national team, tipped off united about the excitement surrounding the player in portugal .
i know real madrid were hovering and so were benfica ,
ferguson said .
it was one of those decisions that had to be made quickly, so i made it quickly. i don' t think it' s a risk or a fairy story [ bébé was brought up in an orphanage and spent part of his childhood on the streets ] it' s just an incentive to all young players who haven' t necessarily had the best start to their careers .
there are plenty of good young players who don' t get the breaks, or the right opportunities right at the outset, but get noticed in the end. stuart pearce was one of them. bébé is still young – because he' s not yet 21 we don' t have to name him in our squad of 25 – and when you get players at that age you can give them time. with all the experience we have in our first - team squad, we don' t need to rush them .
it possibly does not feel that way to bébé at the moment. speaking through an interpreter in manchester today he said it had been around a week from first hearing of united' s interest to sitting at old trafford in a club tracksuit .
it has all happened very quickly but i have an opportunity and now i have to grab it and work very hard ,
he said .
of course i have heard of the premier league before, it was always my dream to play for a club like chelsea or manchester united ,
he said, perhaps sounding a tad arrogant but more likely simply naming the two english clubs with the strongest portuguese connections .
some very big names from portugal have played here, cristiano ronaldo, nani and anderson, and that was definitely a factor. i want to become like them .
for a player whose biggest game to date was a losing encounter with benfica while representing a portuguese third division team, bébé is not short of confidence. then again, if manchester united have just snapped you up unseen, why be shy ?
i' m fast, i kick well, and i score a lot of goals ,
he replied, when asked what english audiences could expect .
but first of all i am here to work and learn .
ferguson' s trio of somewhat unlikely summer signings – bébé from portuguese obscurity, javier hernández from mexico and chris smalling from fulham' s reserves – have prompted speculation about whether united are having to look at the economy end of the market because the club' s american owners have placed limits on spending. the manager has already pointed out that few other clubs would spend more than £20m on relatively untried youngsters and he says he has no wish to join in the
kamikaze spending
triggered by the new generation of enormously wealthy clubs owners .
people are spending amazing amounts of money and i don' t see any sign of it abating just yet ,
he said .
if anything, it' s getting worse. i am not saying we will never pay big money for an experienced player again, from time to time we might need to. this is a young players' club at the moment and it has always been one of our policies to identify good players early and let them grow into the club, but even if you strip all the young players out of the equation, we still have an incredible amount of experience in our first - team squad .
that' s my back - up, i have all that experience to rely on. there were a couple of higher profile players we looked at this summer but if you buy someone like that you have to put him in the team, and i wasn' t sure there was anyone who would actually make the team that much better. i asked myself would they do what eric cantona did for us, or wayne rooney or cristiano ronaldo, and in the end i didn' t think they would .
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last season bébé played four pre - season friendlies for vitória before his move to manchester united. photograph: neal simpson / empics sport
for €9m, the most improbable signing in the career of sir alex ferguson, who admitted he had never seen the player kick a ball .
a 20 - year - old who spent his youth in care near lisbon after being abandoned by his parents, bébé had played only one season, 26 matches, for estrela da amadora in the portuguese third division, before reis negotiated a move for him to a first division club, vitória guimarães. last summer bébé played four pre - season friendlies for vitória, and sacked reis as his agent on 5 august by letter, which reis says he received on 9 august; then bébé was the subject of a deal with united that works out as £7. 5m on 11 august .
united confirmed subsequently that jorge mendes, agent to josé mourinho, who has become a huge influence in portuguese football and previously negotiated the moves by cristiano ronaldo, nani and anderson to old trafford, acted for bébé. vitória' s directors stated at their annual meeting late last year that mendes, after seemingly less than a week' s work, had been paid €3. 6m of the €9m fee. reis had a two - year contract to act as bébé' s agent from august 2009 to august this year .
now reis says he is
seriously considering
making a formal complaint to fifa about the manner in which he lost his client to mendes .
i spotted bébé playing ,
he recalls ,
i could see he had talent but, because of the person he is and his very poor and difficult background, i had to look after him very closely as a person, as well as be his agent. i negotiated his move first to estrela, then to vitória, then last summer he went missing on me. i read that he had agreed an improved contract with a €9m buyout clause at vitória, then i suddenly received this letter in which he purported to say our relationship was at an end. two days later he went to manchester united for €9m. i am now very seriously considering making a complaint to fifa .
reis did believe bébé had potential; he signed a two - year agreement to represent him as his agent, to run from 19 august 2009. reis says he negotiated bébé' s first move to the partly professional, financially struggling estrela, based in lisbon' s north - western outskirts, when bébé was 19. the club' s financial difficulties meant they did not pay bébé, so he became a free agent. reis tried to pitch the player' s potential to bigger clubs in portugal and around europe, including psv eindhoven, who he says were not interested. vitória, based in guimarães in the north of the country, agreed to take a gamble on him .
reis says he was negotiating the details of bébé' s proposed contract with vitória from may last year. bébé attacked his chance there, playing formidably in the pre - season friendlies. reis claims bébé suddenly went missing; he did not turn up to a scheduled meeting in lisbon and reis could not get him on his phone. from then, according to reis, he had no contact with the player he had regarded as his protégé and potentially valuable client. he read in the newspapers that bébé had signed a contract with vitória, then, after notable performances, an improved one with the €9m buyout clause .
bébé, a young man of poverty and patchy education, sent reis a letter, dated 5 august last year, which said the contract they had was balanced in reis' s favour and that he was unhappy with complaints reis had made to the portuguese media about having been kept out of bébé' s negotiations with vitória. bébé said he had negotiated that contract himself. for all these reasons, the letter, signed by bébé, said he was treating his contract with reis to be his agent as at an end .
fifa' s rules on the conduct of agents, which sepp blatter' s world governing body still currently oversees although it is about to abandon licensing of agents altogether, state that an agent cannot induce a player to breach his contract with another agent. when mendes became involved is not clear, nor how he came to represent bébé, a relationship united confirmed in the only interview bébé has given so far, exclusively to the club' s official website in november. in it, bébé said he had been playing well for guimarães in pre - season friendlies and :
suddenly jorge mendes told me about the deal. i was very happy at the time, i didn' t expect it. it was like a dream to me .
reis says he restrained himself from complaining at the time because he did not want to disrupt bébé' s settling in period at united .
what happened was wrong ,
reis says .
if he had come to me, and said he is the major agent with the experience of deals at the biggest clubs and we should come to an arrangement, i would have talked to him. instead i receive this letter signed by bébé two days before he moves to manchester united, with mendes as his agent. that is not right .
shortly after bébé joined united, ferguson lambasted as
vicious
reports that bébé was too raw a footballer amid the polished skills exhibited by the senior players at old trafford. bébé has made two appearances as a substitute in premier league matches, played three times in the carling cup and once as a substitute in the champions league, at bursaspor where he scored in a 3 - 0 victory. he has also played for portugal under - 21s, many of whose players mendes has represented in recent years, along with the majority of the senior national side .
at the time bébé went to united, emilio macedo, the president of vitória, hailed the work mendes had done .
jorge mendes has been the bulwark of this transfer ,
he said .
with all due respect to other agents, this country owes him a lot because he handles large transfers and brings money into the country. this is like an export.
gestão de carreiras de profissionais desportivos , s.a. , known as gestifute , is a portuguese company providing agent services for footballers . unlike other football associations , portugal allowed other parties to own part of the economic rights of the players , in order to receive part of the transfer fees . the company was founded by jorge mendes . 
gestão de carreiras de profissionais desportivos, s.a., known as gestifute, is a portuguese company providing agent services for footballers. unlike other football associations, portugal allowed other parties to own part of the economic rights of the players, in order to receive part of the transfer fees. the company was founded by jorge mendes.
gestão de carreiras de profissionais desportivos, s.a., known as gestifute, is a portuguese company providing agent services for footballers. unlike other football associations, portugal allowed other parties to own part of the economic rights of the players, in order to receive part of the transfer fees. the company was founded by jorge mendes.