Olympiakos: Seeking €44 Million for Quartet
Porto, Wolves, and Braga are asking significant sums from Olympiakos for players Carmo, Pontense, and Horta. Additionally, Piraeus PAE has offered El Kaabi €5.5 million for a two-year contract.
It has been 41 days since Olympiakos won the Conference League, but the team from Piraeus still faces numerous unresolved issues ahead of the new season. The most critical among these is the high financial demands for players recommended by José Luis Mendilibar during his tenure. However, these are not easy cases. The financial demands for David Carmo, Daniel Pontense, André Horta, and Ayoub El Kaabi total €40 million.
And this figure only accounts for these four players, excluding the renewal of contracts for Fortounis and Masouras, or additional transfer needs. Deals for players like Stamenits, Garthia, Kostinia, Tzolakis, and Paschalakis also add to the financial burden. Here’s what the teams are demanding: Porto wants €17.5 million for Carmo, reflecting his buyout option set last January. Wolves are asking for around €10 million or more for Pontense, while Braga insists on the €6 million release clause for Horta.
In total, these three players would cost €33.5 million, and with their annual salaries adding another €5 million, the total reaches €38.5 million. Additionally, Olympiakos has offered El Kaabi a new two-year contract worth €5.5 million, bringing the total required for these four players to €44 million. This is a significant amount by Greek standards, making negotiations challenging, time-consuming, and requiring delicate handling until the deals are finalized.
From Olympiakos’s perspective, the club is likely to either renew its loan and buy option next summer or pay about €8 million for 70-75% of Carmo’s rights. The club also aims to secure Pontense from Wolves for around €5 million and Horta’s rights from Braga for close to €4 million. Thus, for the three players, Olympiakos plans to spend a total of €17 million plus €5 million in salaries, totaling €22 million. Including El Kaabi’s two-year deal, the sum reaches €27.5 million.
It’s worth noting that these amounts do not include the annual salaries of Fortounis and Masouras or the funds needed for additional transfers, such as a second forward, a winger, a center-back, and a left-back.
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