Premier League / Mercato – Matheus Cunha (Atlético de Madrid) in Wolverhampton, a new transfer signed Jorge Mendes

Jorge Mendes has struck again. Red lantern in the Premier League with the worst attack in the championship, Wolverhampton will have reinforcements before facing Everton on Monday (4:00 p.m.). The eminent super-agent has overseen yet another transfer for the English club. Already at the origin of nine of the ten biggest transfers of the West Midlands team, the Portuguese worked discreetly on the arrival of the Brazilian striker from Atlético de Madrid, Matheus Cunha. The deal negotiated by the agent would take the form of a loan with a mandatory purchase option of up to 50 million euros. Cunha has already said goodbye to Madrid fans.

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An amount that raises questions

The price is confusing. The Brazilian, downgraded in the hierarchy of Colchoneros attackers, was not selected for the World Cup in Qatar. Barred in Madrid, Cunha logically saw his rating drop drastically on the market. However, Atletico would manage to emerge as the winner of the operation by selling the striker at a higher price than he had bought him (30 million euros). A feat that awakens some precedents. Indeed, this is not the first time that Jorge Mendes has used his gargantuan address book to strengthen Wolves, while paying himself a percentage on the operations carried out.

Matheus Cunha did not convince under the tunic of Atlético

Credit: Getty Images

So, agent, sports director, or both? The question has long inflamed debates across the Channel, where the EFL had to peel the organization chart of the Wolves club after complaints raised by Leeds United and other Championship clubs in 2018. The UK court’s verdict ultimately dismissed the complaining clubs’ claim and said Mendes’ involvement with Wolves as an agent and adviser to the club and its owner was “satisfactory“.

As a reminder, the rules enacted by the English Federation (FA) aimed at preventing possible conflicts of interest prohibit an agent from being able to exercise any material, managerial or any other influence on the affairs of a club, directly or indirectly. The redundancy of disturbing cases is however a stone thrown in the garden of Mendes.

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Cunha and previous Jota and Jonny

If Cunha’s agent is officially his compatriot Giuliano Bertolucci, Jorge Mendes has put his stamp on this transfer estimated at around 50 million euros. This was revealed by the site The Athletic in December by revealing that Atlético were preparing to make a pack “Cunha et Felipe” to Wolves. Such a sum for a downgraded player, as mentioned above, whose market value is plummeting, seems like madness.

At the origin of Atletico’s big transfers – including the record purchase of João Félix for 126 million euros in the summer of 2019 – Mendes also stood out for the sale of Diogo Jota to Wolverhampton for 14 million euros in 2018, all after a year-long loan spell at West Midlands County. Same process for the Spaniard Jonny Otto Castro, initially loaned to the English club, before being sold there for 21 million euros.

Jonny’s case raises some questions. The Spaniard, like Cunha, was not a resident of the Mendes stable. But at the price at which they were (or will be) sold, it is difficult not to detect between the lines a puncture of the Gestifute company directed by Jorge Mendes. A similar operation dating back to the summer of 2021 concerning the record transfer of Fabio Silva (then at FC Porto) had alerted the Portuguese authorities. As a result, nearly 5 million euros – out of the 40 of the total amount – had been hidden in obscure commissions.

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Mendes still manages to escape – for the moment – ​​the sanctions, since his role is not clearly established in these sibylline operations and it is difficult to assess the part that Gestifute would assume. A share legally capped at 10% on a transfer fee by FIFA. A measure laid against the influence of super-agents, but which was probably not enough to stop the Portuguese agent in his works.

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