How is this possible? “The net collected was not 68 million euros. It should be remembered that four players arrived for 20 million euros. Their real value was zero euros.”
In the wonderful world of football business, we must not neglect intermediaries as well. “If we balance the purchase of the player, all the intermediaries, the capital gains, the commissions, the sale and the players who arrived, there are approximately 7 million who went into the club’s coffers.
A totally derisory sum when we know the initial investment which varies, depending on the sources, from 68 to 77 million euros.
Financially, if Osimhen is still the club’s second best seller, it was not the most profitable. “LOSC earned a lot more money with Carlos Baléba (27M), Amadou Onana (40M), Sven Botman (37M) and Leny Yoro (62M). Indeed, on these players that we sold, there were no more kickbacks, commissions, intermediaries and so on. The money went directly into the club’s coffers.”
What happened to the four players in question?
Certainly, the players who arrived in France are not guilty. Greek goalkeeper Oreste Karnezis was 35 years old at the time and cost 5 million euros. He is the only one who had some experience, although paying such a sum for a goalkeeper of this age is very high. He is also the only one to have made an appearance for LOSC.
The other three players were Claudio Manzi, Luigi Liguori and Ciro Palmieri. The first two cost 4 bricks while the third had a tag of 7 million. Totally inflated prices compared to their level and the market. They were directly loaned and then resold without ever seeing the Luchin estate. None of them are professionals today.
Four years ago, Osimhen exploded in Charleroi: “Victor one day in Manchester? But what is he telling me?”
For Italian justice, this is a fictitious added value. To put it simply, the president of Naples would have inflated the market values of these players to include 20 million euros in revenue in order to meet the requirements of financial fair play. On the other hand, Lille obtained new money without staggering payments for Osimhen.
Everyone wins? Not so much since Napoli has already had a visit from the police with searches of its premises for suspicion of false accounting. In April of this year, Aurelio de Laurentiis was also heard by the courts.
Gérard Lopez, the man who ruins the clubs
For his part, Olivier Letang points the finger at a man: Gérard Lopez. “It’s nothing personal,” he continued in L’Equipe du soir. “Given my convictions and my vision of sport, it is inconceivable that he would have been allowed to take over another club. I spoke with an elected official from Bordeaux to explain to him what was going to happen in two years with the Girondins.”
With a catastrophic situation today: the club is in National 2, the equivalent of the Fourth Division. As a reminder, Gérard Lopez was also the owner of Excel Mouscron until its bankruptcy in 2022. Proof of a certain unenviable expertise in the matter.
From Vesuvius to the Bosphorus, Dries Mertens rediscovered his connection with Victor Osimhen: “He’s an incredible player”
Gérard Lopez was sentenced in November to 10 months’ suspended imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros for complicity in the illegal exercise of the activity of sports agent when he was president of Lille.
For his part, Olivier Letang filed a complaint against the former owner of LOSC. “We have filed two complaints and as president and CEO, we are civil parties.”
