Even if he arrived on the day of the pitiful elimination against Bourgoin, Thiago Almada hopes to put a smile on the face of OL supporters. His signature is in any case a good laugh on the other side of the Alps.
Prohibited from recruitment with a regulated payroll but capable of signing a world champion, such is the feat that John Textor has just achieved with Olympique Lyonnais. Angry with the DNCG and generally with the French authorities in the face of their distrust and their sanctions against his club, the American owner managed to circumvent the regulations and above all continues to make a lot of talk. Its winter transfer window in 2024 had called attention, allowing the last of the championship to become European. This time, it is his ability to recruit when he does not have the right to do so that is astonishing. And not just in France.
Textor is a magician
In Italy, the TMW information site ironically commented on the signing of Thiago Almada, loaned free of charge by Botagofo, another club in the Eagle fold, and for whom OL are clearly not going to pay any salary. “ Thiago Almada leaves Textor to join Textor », laughs the transalpine media, while the comments on social networks under the publication of Gazzetta dello Sport evoking this arrival are just as sarcastic. “ It's easy to do the transfer window like that”, “a player worth 20 million, they're not even going to pay him”, “he could send the whole Botafogo team, champions of South America, since it's the truce there”, “it's beyond magic what Textor does “, quipped the followers of European football for whom multi-ownership provides ever more surprising solutions, bordering on legality, for owners.
France
