Antony to Man Utd saved Sao Paulo from transfer chaos

Imre Himmelbauer

• 31 Mar 2023 08:10 BST
• 3 min read

Antony's transfer to Manchester United saved Sao Paulo from having to let go of three players, Globo Esporte reports.

The Brazilian left Ajax for Manchester United last summer, with the Red Devils paying an initial fee of €95 million, plus potentially €5m in bonuses.

Antony’s old club Sao Paulo had negotiated a resale clause of 20% and were therefore entitled to around €19m – a huge sum by their standards.

MORE: What next for Man Utd's Mason Greenwood?

Indeed, the income from this transfer last year accounted for nearly half of all Sao Paulo's turnover on player transfer rights and the revenue allowed the Brazilian club to make a profit for the first time in three years. Sao Paulo recorded a net profit of 37m Brazilian Real, equivalent to €6.65m.

As a result, the club was no longer forced to sell its left-back Welington and midfielders Pablo Maia and Rodrigo Nestor. The latter was on the shortlist of Dynamo Kyiv and even direct competitor Botafogo. Maia has been followed by Fulham and Welington was of interest to Bayer Leverkusen and Besiktas.

EXCLUSIVE: Man City plan to replace Haaland with Moukoko

"When we received transfer offers for Welington, Pablo and Nestor, we didn't immediately accept them because we were waiting for Antony to transfer," said chairman Julio Cesares. "If it didn't happen, we would sell all three. That was unavoidable."

At the moment, the Brazilian club is also keeping an eye on three players of whom it still owns part of the transfer rights. These are the 21-year-old Morato (Benfica), 23-year-old Gabriel Sara (Norwich City) and Brenner from FC Cincinnati, who is also 23. Sao Paulo owns 15%, 10% and 20% of the transfer rights of these players respectively.

Antony, meanwhile, is still fighting to be recognised as a success at Manchester United. Since his bumper summer transfer from Ajax, he has scored seven goals in 30 matches but has created just one more.