Sporting splash out €200 million, Frederico Varandas sets historic record | OneFootball

Sporting is preparing to surpass the 200 million euro mark invested in attack since the beginning of Frederico Varandas’ presidency, a symbolic milestone that will be reached with the imminent arrival of Souleymane Faye, the Senegalese international winger from Granada.

Rui Borges is counting down the hours until he can integrate the second attacking reinforcement in this winter transfer window, in a January where the club’s management has decided to invest heavily with the aim of keeping the team competitive in the race for a third consecutive championship. With the deal for Faye almost finalized, the Lions will go from the current 197.44 million to 203.94 million euros spent on attacking players during the Varandas era.

This season already represents Sporting’s largest ever offensive investment. Just in 2025/26, the club spent 77.91 million euros on signings and increasing stakes in player rights, a figure that includes the wingers Luis Guilherme and Souleymane Faye (20.5 million), as well as strikers Luis Suárez and Fotis Ioannidis. Added to this amount are another 13.25 million invested in boosting the economic rights of Francisco Trincão and Geny Catamo. This financial effort corresponds to 38.2% of all investment during the Varandas era.

The deal for Faye is in its final stages, with only details related to the payment plan left to settle. The transfer fee is set at 6.5 million euros fixed, plus 10% of a future capital gain for Granada. According to the newspaper Ideal, this issue delayed the player’s trip to Lisbon, but does not jeopardize the completion of the deal. The Spanish club’s coach, Pacheta, himself confirmed that the process is very advanced.

Elected President in September 2018, Frederico Varandas began this journey with modest investments, such as the signing of Luiz Phellype for 500 thousand euros in January 2019. Since then, financial growth has allowed for increasingly larger deals, such as Paulinho, Trincão, and Viktor Gyokeres. Sporting is now approaching the amounts invested by Porto (202.84M) in the same period, while Benfica stands out at the top (353.45M).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.