Edu Gaspar is the one pushing Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis to invest in Sao Paulo, after pushing Arsenal to do the same thing previously.
That’s according to UOL, who say Gaspar is a ‘key player’ in the Nottingham Forest owner’s efforts to invest in the Brazilian club.
They explain that Edu, while at Arsenal, had asked the club to undertake a study to identify the best youth academy in Brazil. This ultimately pointed him to São Paulo, and he’s had the club in mind since then.
He was unable to convince Arsenal’s owners to invest in the club or create a partnership, which was reported earlier this year, but the idea has not left him.
He was therefore the one who ‘directed’ Marinakis to invest in the Tricolor. When hired by the Greek magnate he presented the idea to him and Marinakis gave the green light to the project.
That led the Nottingham Forest owner to hold talks with his counterparts from São Paulo in a hotel the city, without Edu’s involvement being made clear.
They are now pushing as a team to get a deal over the line and are excited about the ‘imminent deal’ and are already targeting players in the Brazilian youth market. The club’s scouts are hard are work to identify targets.
The partnership will see Marinakis helping São Paulo financially to target the best youngsters in Brazilian football, with the aim to sign players and for the club to own at least 80% of their rights. Marinakis would take the other 20% and they would avoid that being owned by other clubs, agents or players themselves.
That is something to be worked on, but the Nottingham Forest owner is pushing to get the deal done, encouraged by Edu, who first came up with the idea while at Arsenal.
