2023-07-12 07:30:38
Barcelona It was the autumn of 2019. The summer market had ended and Barça was beginning to explore the football universe thinking about future signings. Suddenly there were reports of a young bride. “It could be the new Busquets”, they assured. Éric Abidal, then technical secretary, traveled to Brazil and was convinced, despite the fact that he did not get to see any of Matheus Fernandes’ matches, only a training session with Palmeiras’ reserve team. Barça paid 7 million for a player who joined the 2020-21 season. Koeman, who had just taken the reins of the Blaugrana bench, immediately saw that something was squeaking. He only played 17 minutes in a game that was already decided. A single match. When the player asked for an explanation, the coach told him: “You don’t have the level to be at Barça.” In the end, after an unproductive transfer to Valladolid, Barça kicked him out in bad ways and was ordered to pay him 7.7 million in compensation.
The man who praised and proposed the signing was André Cury, the controversial agent and scout who at the time worked for Barça as head of South American football. “He was able to sell you a motorcycle without wheels”, people who had dealt with him remind the ARA. A man that Bartomeu kicked out in 2020 and with whom the Barcelona club, now with Joan Laporta in the presidency, has had to deal with again, because he is the representative of the Brazilian Vitor Roque. After several weeks of negotiations, Barça closed the signing of the forward on Saturday, although the signing will not be made official until this Wednesday due to bureaucratic issues. They are 30 million fixed and 30 more in variables for an 18-year-old footballer who, if there are no surprises, will join the Barça discipline at Christmas. A young promise, like so many others that Cury has helped bring to Barça. With the exception of Neymar, none of the others have ended up winning at Camp Nou.
Barça and Cury have been dealing, directly or indirectly, for many years now. Starting with the signing of Ronaldinho, in 2003, when Sandro Rosell contacted him to help him pull the strings and convince the footballer – who was at PSG and wanted by Manchester United – to play at Camp Nou. The agent was also a key piece in the signing of Neymar, with whom he had a relationship of utmost trust, especially with the Brazilian star’s father. Ronaldinho and Neymar are two stars he likes to brag about. But in their history of signings there are names with very bad memories for the Blaugrana club, starting with those of Keirrison and Henrique, hired in 2008 for 14 and 8 million, respectively, and who did not even make their debut in a friendly match. In fact, as they explain at the Camp Nou, Pep Guardiola – who had just taken charge of the first team – put his hands on his head when he saw them training. After several concessions they ended up leaving with the letter of freedom.
André Cury came to collect a salary of 700,000 euros per year
In 2008 Cury was working at Traffic, the representation agency that a few years later would be convicted of fraud. The agent disengaged and went to work on his own. In 2013, with Neymar’s arrival at Barça, Rosell recruited him. “Officially, they hired him to be in charge of the South American market, but in reality his task was to control Neymar in Barcelona,” says one of the sources consulted. That’s why he spent more time in Catalonia than in Brazil, and almost always with Neymar. “Considering how it all ended [Neymar va marxar al PSG per 222 milions]it’s clear that he didn’t do the job well”, criticize from Ciutat Esportiva. Although the Brazilian striker left in 2017, Cury continued to receive from Barça until 2020. And not a lower salary. According revealed Catalunya Ràdio, his last contract was for 685,000 euros per year, plus bonuses, and he had the expenses deriving from his work – travel and per diems – paid by the club. A figure up to ten times higher than most visitors Barça’s international players. “A high salary, yes, but in exchange for giving up the commissions,” points out a prominent former member of Bartomeu’s board.
While at Barça, Cury had a very close relationship with Raúl Sanllehí, head of football, and Pep Segura, the club’s technical director. Also Andoni Zubizarreta and Robert Fernandez, other technical secretaries with whom he met at Camp Nou. Numerous Brazilian additions to the Blaugrana team came out of his contacts agenda, especially for the subsidiary. In addition to Matheus Fernandes, Emerson Royal, Matheus Pereira, Robert Gonçalves, Gabriel Novaes, Vitinho, Igor Gomes, Marlon Santos, Douglas Pereira and Gustavo Maia landed in Barcelona. Players who, in total, cost more than 41 million euros. “And more than that he proposed but they told him no”, they remember from the outgoing board. He was also key in the signings of Yerry Mina, Arthur Melo, Coutinho and Paulinho. And, as he likes to remember when interviewed, he had arranged the signing of Vinícius for the Barcelona club, but the operation went awry when Real Madrid entered the scene and made a superior offer.
Those who have dealt with André Cury regularly define him as a “funny” person with “a lot of communicative ability” who sits at a table and “never stops chatting or telling anecdotes”. Someone who “knows how to move between corridors, make contacts and gain people’s trust”. With the money he earned from football, he built a mansion in Brazil to which he often invited his friends and where he took the opportunity to close deals. When Barça dispensed with his services, it did so as part of the widespread cuts resulting from the pandemic. Sources from Bartomeu’s board justified that “it was not hygienic” for someone who represented players to be at the same time Barça’s adviser on signings. But the fact is that Cury combined the two tasks for seven seasons and no one seemed suspicious.
#André #Cury #omnipresent #agent #signing #Vitor #Roque #Barça