Savinho might just be a flagship signing for the multi-club ownership model - as well as for Man City

It is a very old-fashioned route to the top, yet also a very modern one. A few years before joining the Premier League champions, Savinho was getting up at 5am to milk his grandparents’ cows on the family farm in Brazil. Manchester City was not on his mind then, he admitted. “I was really happy being on the farm,” he said, sounding like a throwback to the times when footballers had been miners and millworkers, trained in trades or primed to take over family businesses.

At 20, he has scored in the Copa America, as part of a Brazil forward line with the Champions League winners Rodrygo and Vinicius Junior, played a pivotal role in helping Girona complete a top three in LaLiga with Real Madrid and Barcelona and been bought to supply the City Galacticos. “I’m really looking forward to providing assists for [Erling] Haaland and other players like [Kevin] De Bruyne,” he said.

But City’s flagship summer signing arrived at the Etihad Stadium after a transfer with a difference; or perhaps a sign of things to come.

Savinho was recruited from Troyes for an initial €25m, plus a potential €15m in add-ons; yet he never made an appearance for Troyes. As he was upwardly mobile, they slipped downwards, relegated twice in his time on their books, albeit reinstated to Ligue 2 because of Bordeaux’s financial meltdown.

Instead, it transpired, he arrived in France with another move already arranged.

“There was already a loan agreement when I signed and that was explained very clearly to me and I did like that offer, it was appealing to me, so it worked well,” said Savinho. His first loan was at PSV Eindhoven. “The first season adapting in Europe is quite difficult,” he added. “I learnt a great deal on the pitch tactically. I also learnt a lot technically. There was also the culture, when I first moved to the Netherlands there was the climate, the cold, the language. The experience in the Netherlands meant that when I went to Girona I was a better player.”

His second loan came at part of another family business, one that doesn’t involve milking cows. Like Troyes, Girona are part of the City Football Group. “At Girona I earned the trust and confidence of my teammates,” he said. He scored 11 goals and made 10 others in Girona’s surprise surge. “From there, I caught the attention of Manchester City and negotiations started with City,” he said. “It went on for some months and it was mutual. I was very interested in playing for Manchester City and they were very interested in signed me.”

Yet if his pace and skill were eye-catching, it is safe to say Savinho was on City’s radar before then. Indeed, he said last season that he signed for Troyes, despite interest from Arsenal, to try and play for City; the CFG have a 47 percent stake in Girona and their chairman is Pere Guardiola.

Savinho could be a poster boy for the merits of multi-club ownership; City have been able to introduce a teenage talent from South America to European football, testing him at other clubs before determining he suited them, while Girona got a player they probably could not afford to buy and who took them to the best season in their history. Troyes, who bought him from Atletico Mineiro for an initial €6.5m, pocketed a profit. “It was really good,” said Savinho, of his time at the French club.

open image in gallery

open image in gallery

Everyone was a winner: in some respects, anyway. Troyes have not been if results are the determining factor, going down twice, winning a mere 13 of 76 league games while Savinho did not even debut for them; nor, perhaps, any other club who had hoped to buy the winger, but who instead saw his progress to Manchester smoothed.

It is, however, worth noting that his transfer to City was checked and adjudged by Uefa that it was fair-market value; there was nothing improper in the price. European football’s governing body has ruled that players cannot be transferred between sister clubs in the same continental competition, unless there is a pre-existing agreement, as there was for Savinho.

Settling in Manchester could be easier, meanwhile, because he had spent 15 days there while with Girona. All of which could reward CFG for their scouting, for their global network that can create pathways for players. Perhaps it is no wonder that others are seeking to emulate them: Chelsea, in the guise of BlueCo, bought Strasbourg while Fenway Sports Group are looking to acquire another club and considered Bordeaux. Meanwhile, Girona’s success has provided City with a player and should make them money.

The day before Savinho was unveiled at the Etihad Stadium, his Girona teammate Yan Couto joined Borussia Dortmund, on loan but with a €30m permanent move likely to be triggered. The full-back is owned by City, but has never played for them. Savinho, meanwhile, was owned by Troyes and never played for them. A crowd-pleaser on the pitch may be a symptom of football in the 2020s and a trailblazer for a multi-club future.