On Thursday morning, Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manhã revealed an investigation has been launched over the transfer of Fabio Silva from Porto to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The English side spent €40m to sign the striker, and with the Dragons reporting that they kept just over €25m of it, local authorities started checking where the rest of the money went.
The report claimed that from the nearly €15m which went elsewhere, €7m went to Gestifute, from which €500k was passed to agent Pedro Pinho, from PP Sports. So there was some suspicion over why they had a percentage from Jorge Mendes’ company instead of getting it straight from Wolves or Porto.
Well, Correio da Manhã is back with a new story about the case today, and this time, they explain that the investigation is indeed about Pedro Pinho.
Even though there was also money going elsewhere, with Silva’s father getting €3m and Porto not explaining all those operational costs of nearly €5m, it’s actually the agent who had his bank accounts analysed by Portuguese authorities.
Depending on what they find, the local justice could start an operation ‘in the coming weeks’. Pinho has a close relationship to FC Porto and that’s why accounts from many people involved, including the son of club president Pinto da Costa, have been checked as well.
So even though the initial report from Correio da Manhã made it sound like Wolves or Jorge Mendes could be involved in a big issue, they now explain it has more to do with the agent who made half a million, with the investigation going towards the Portuguese club and not the Molineux side, at least for now.
