The complicated and unusual case of Ricardo Horta
Ricardo Horta was one of the stars of the Primeira Liga this season, earning himself a call-up to the Portugal national team - for whom he scored the equalising goal against Spain in the opening Nations League group stage match in just his second ever appearance for his country - and with it admirers across the continent.
Benfica, however, are the club that are currently showing most interest in the 27-year old, and even tabled a €10million offer for his services, a proposal that was swiftly rejected by Braga president Antonio Salvador, who was not intent on letting their most valuable asset leave for such a discounted fee. But Horta's case is not straightforward, and rejecting such an offer is, in actual fact, going to cost Braga significant money.
This is where Malaga come in. Ricardo Horta is a curious case. Though a Braga player through and through since his loan from the Spanish side was made permanent in 2017, the Minho club actually only own, at most, just 33% of his economic rights. The rest, in the region of 67%, belong to Malaga, as confirmed by Malaga’s sporting director, Manolo Gaspar.
This would not only dilute the profits that Braga are to make from selling their star player considerably, entitled to only a fraction of any eventual transaction, but an agreement with Malaga also ensures that Braga will need to pay the Spanish second division side a fee to buy-out Malaga’s percentage should they reject any proposal that exceeds €5million.
As Benfica offered €10million, Braga will need to pay Malaga a considerable €6.7million - 67% of the transfer fee that was rejected. This is a fairly hefty sum of money for a club like Braga, who typically spend low in the transfer market looking for favourable opportunities. Their record signing, for example, was Wallace in 2014, who signed for just under 10 million euros.
Benfica have therefore been attempting to force Braga into a sale, lowballing their initial offer and ensuring Malaga are made aware of their approach to try and force Braga into selling their key man to avoid having to pay a compensation fee.
By paying Malaga, however, Braga are then expected to obtain the full 100% of his economic rights, which could ultimately see them stand to make a good profit on the player, who has a release clause of 30 million euros which was kept even after he renewed his contract until 2026 in October 2021.
That said, in his previous contract, he also had an additional clause - a foreign club release clause of just 15 million euros, which is understood to have also been maintained in his current deal. This means that any club based outside of Portugal will have the opportunity to sign the winger for a heavily discounted fee, and Braga would be obliged to accept, thus diluting the profits they make on Horta further.
The deal is a complicated one, with several parties involved. Above all, however, it illustrates how far beyond expectations Horta has exploded as a player, having now even broken into the Portugal national team.
Ricardo Horta. Photo author:
Football.ua. License link.
