Manchester City have confirmed the signing of Sávio. He’s your archetypal Brazilian winger; he’s full of flare, he’s technically superb and above all he wants to take a man on. Jérémy Doku aside, he’s the kind of player City have been lacking since the days of Leroy Sané and Raheem Sterling terrorising opposing fullbacks. At £33m, he seems like a perfect signing.
But there’s a caveat. There are issues surrounding Sávio’s signing, and they don’t really have anything to do with the player himself.
In many ways, the Brazilian has been employed by the same people for the last two years. He spent last season at Girona who, like his new club, are owned by the City Football Group. This created some pretty significant questions about the legality of his transfer for one key reason: Girona have been too good.
Sávio notched 19 goal contributions last season as Girona qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history. Of course, after winning the Premier League, Manchester City will be there too.
Embed from Getty ImagesUEFA’s rules state that two clubs under the same ownership cannot play in the same competition. This hasn’t just created a headache for Manchester City, but also their crosstown rivals. Manchester United’s footballing operations are controlled by INEOS, who also have a stake in French side OGC Nice. They’re in the same predicament, with both sides set to compete in the UEFA Europa League next season.
The solution was that both the City Football Group and INEOS transferred their ownership stakes in Girona and Nice into a blind trust, allowing all four clubs to compete in their respective competitions.
But there was a catch. Both City and United agreed not to transfer players between themselves and those two sister clubs between July of this year and September 2025. This meant Manchester United were unable to sign Nice defender Jean-Clair Todibo earlier in the window.
City didn’t exactly face the same issue though. It’s now July 2024 and they have successfully completed the signing of Sávio, chiefly down to his performances at a Girona side who will also be competing in the Champions League next season.
So, the question is: how? How is this allowed? The answer is simple really: he didn’t sign from Girona.
Sávio was never a permanent player in La Liga. He was only on loan. Technically, he was contracted to Troyes who are owned by – you guessed it – the City Football Group.
Back in 2022, a then 18-year-old Sávio made his first steps into European football, leaving Atlético Mineiro for Ligue 1 side Troyes. A £5.5m transfer fee made him their most expensive signing of all time. But he wouldn’t make a single appearance.
Instead, he was loaned out to PSV for the 2022/23 season and then Girona for 2023/24. Troyes could only look on as their record signing excelled while they all but succumbed to two successive relegations. They were used as a pawn: a stepping stone to facilitate his European development.
So now it’s July 2024 and Sávio hasn’t signed for Manchester City from Girona, but from a Troyes side who survived in the second tier of French football by the skin of their teeth; they finished in the relegation zone, but only stayed up after 12th-placed Bordeaux were forcibly relegated in their place due to financial issues.
With all of that considered, it’s a signing that encapsulates just why the multi-club ownership model is so maligned by football purists. Troyes watched £5.5m leave their pockets, faced embarrassing relegation from the top flight and only survived falling into the black hole of the third tier because of another side’s financial misfortune.
They were never given a chance, and neither were Girona; Sávio was signed with Manchester City in mind the whole time. If he was good enough, there would be a blue carpet to the Etihad Stadium laid out for him. If he wasn’t, like so many City Football Group signings before him, he’d be flipped for a profit. Luckily for him, he fell into the category of the latter.
But in all of this, Troyes have been forgotten. In the midst of their relegation fight back in May, their game against Valenciennes was abandoned as fans threw flares onto the pitch, and some players threw them right back into the stands. The reason for the disgruntlement was their ownership. Manchester City were on the verge of a fourth successive Premier League title; Troyes were on the verge of sleepwalking into the abyss.
😥 Fin de match catastrophique pour le football…#Ligue2BKT pic.twitter.com/MqJNCNPkmm
— Prime Video Sport France (@PVSportFR) May 3, 2024
So, it’s a controversial signing to say the least. Whether he performs well or not in the Premier League isn’t really the big story here. The big story is how signings like this have the potential to destroy clubs and the competitive balance of the European game.
The Troyes fans sum it up best. As flares rained down onto the pitch and their own players attached the fans back, one chant, with more than a hint of irony, rang around the stadium: ‘Merci City.’