Remember Maniche? The former Portuguese international who once had a short spell at Chelsea is now a retired footballer, and has been working as a club investor in his home country.
The 40-year-old attended the World Scouting Congress this week, where he was accompanied by the likes of Deco and Pedro Emanuel, an talked a little bit about football transfers in general.
One of the subjects in the discussion was Adrien Silva’s move from Sporting to Leicester City, where due to a short delay in the registration, the midfielder couldn’t be signed as a summer transfer and now has to wait until January to go through the same process to be able to play.
“His transfer should have been dealt with earlier by the agent. It doesn’t make sense that you have to stay half a year without playing,” said Maniche on the Leicester switch.
Then someone in the audience shouted that Jorge Mendes was the one responsible for it, and showing good sense of humor, Maniche replied: “Oh, it was Jorge? He’s going to call me tomorrow.”
But Record, who covered the event, recalls that it was not Jorge Mendes’ company Gestifute who handled the transfer, but actually Stellar Group.
Still regarding agents, the former footballer claimed that their interests have been changing a bit: “That figure of the agent who follows the player has been missing. Now the focus is too much in the business. And the agents prefer to have good relationships with the clubs, since there are a lot of players there, they can do more business than helping their clients, supporting them and their families.”
Training with Leicester City’s first team squad for over a month now, Adrien Silva continues preparing to make his debut for the club, which should happen in early January.
