How Jorge Mendes and Fosun brought Wolves back to big time - and what lies ahead

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  • A sleeping giant awoke this weekend in the West Midlands.

    When Wolverhampton Wanderers took to the pitch against Everton, it marked a return to the Premier League for the first time in six years by one of English football’s founder members.

    The tale of how they got to this point stands as an extreme example of the prevalent forces at play in the modern game. In this case, the confluence between their foreign owners Fosun International and ‘super agent’ Jorge Mendes.

    This is a controversial relationship that Leeds United chairman Andrea Radrizzani labelled “not legal and fair” last March. A month later, a comprehensive review by the English Football League found that Mendes “holds no role at the club” and “there is no requirement” for him to submit to the owners’ and directors’ test.

    A debate has continued about the morality of how unfashionable Wolves put together a squad that won the 2017/18 Championship at a canter and is now expected to finish in the top half of the top flight.

    Mendes’ first-ever client, Nuno Espirito Santo (the pair met in a nightclub that Mendes owned in 1996), selected 10 players either represented by the Portuguese dealmaker or with links to reported associated clubs for Saturday’s 2-2 draw with the Toffees.

    The long-term aims of Fosun also require inspection at a politically sensitive time in their native China.

    “‘Football club uses agent to sign players’… who doesn’t? What I will say is Fosun’s global success is due to the fact they do things different to others,” says David Kirkland, who has jointly run Dubai Wolves fan group since 2009. “They make their ideas better then everyone else’s.”

    There is nothing revolutionary about foreign investors owning Premier League assets. Of the 20 teams set to compete in 2018/19, only six are majority owned by British citizens.

    Fosun are a conglomerate with gross revenue valued at RMB 88.03 billion (Dh47.2bn) in 2017’s annual report. Their disparate and wide-ranging investments also include Club Med, Cirque du Soleil, American insurer Meadowbrook and Australian oil company Roc Oil.

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    Close links between agents and clubs are de rigueur in the Premier League. Since 2016, Mino Raiola has brought Armenia playmaker Henrikh Mkhitaryan, France superstar Paul Pogba, Sweden legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Belgium centre forward Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United.

    Reviled Blackburn owners Venky’s handed Jerome Anderson enormous influence, to ruinous effect.

    What makes this situation stand out is the deal announced in January 2016 that saw a Fosun subsidiary – Foyo Culture and Entertainment Co Ltd – buy a 20-per-cent stake in Start. This is the holding company of the influential GestiFute sports agency founded by Mendes in 1996, whom represent the likes of Portugal icon Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho.

    In July 2016, Fosun would acquire Wolves for £45 million (Dh217.8m) from Liverpool-born construction magnate Steve Morgan. Advice came from Mendes, a situation club chairman Jeff Shi benignly described to BBC Sport as being: “when you are new to an industry, you need someone to help you.”

    There are few sharper strategic minds in football than the 52-year-old’s.

    Valencia, Deportivo La Coruna and Atletico Madrid in Spain; Porto and Benfica in Portugal; Besiktas of Turkey; Russia’s Dynamo Moscow; Monaco in France’s Ligue 1, for a time.

    All part of a network in which Mendes artfully places players and head coaches. Now, Wolves are a key cog.

    “Nowadays, Wolves are strategic for the ‘Jorge Mendes system’,” says Italian sociology professor Pippo Russo, who authored ‘The orgy of power: the story of Jorge Mendes, master of global football’.

    “He suffered two terrible years, with Football Leaks revelations and Spanish fiscal enquiries.

    “For Mendes, Wolves are his revenge, and the direct connection with the Premier League.”

    The Mendes approach hasn’t been without blips. At Valencia in 2016/17, disgruntled fans protested against owner Peter Lim and then boss Nuno – seeing them as Mendes stooges.

    Sizeable expenditure by Dynamo and Besiktas led to financial problems.

    In 2016, claims in ‘Football Leaks’ sparked a report by European Investigative Collaborations that stated “a network of shell companies and offshore accounts in Ireland, in the British Virgin Islands, Panama and Switzerland” were created to help GestiFute clients evade paying tax on image rights.

    Mendes denied any wrongdoing in 2017 to a Spanish court.

    Even so, Mourinho, Argentina winger Angel Di Maria, Colombia forward Radamel Falcao and Ronaldo are high-profile GestiFute clients who have settled tax-fraud cases in Spain.

    The speed of Wolves’ ascent turns all these issues into background noise.

    They had finished a distant 14th in the second division before Fosun got involved.

    A false start in Fosun’s debut campaign saw a drop to 15th, leading to managers Walter Zenga and Paul Lambert being culled along the way.

    Nuno arrived at the end of that season – and the owner’s ambitions met reality during 2017/18.

    Throughout Fosun’s tenure, 53 players have been brought in – either temporarily or permanently – for an estimated £111.2m (Dh521.6m).

    Of this number, 31 have no obvious link to Mendes’ realm of influence.

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    Where he has repeatedly proved his worth is in an ability to bring footballers of significant ability, at prices often below market rate, to an unfashionable area of England.

    Reverberations were created in July 2017 when £15.8m (Dh75.4m) was used to draft in 20-year-old Porto midfielder Ruben Neves, the Champions League’s youngest-ever captain and a player for whom Liverpool were quoted £36m (Dh174.2m) a year prior.

    The 113-cap Portugal veteran Joao Moutinho was convinced last month to ditch life on the Cote d’Azur. Monaco received £5m (Dh24m).

    Just how does Mendes pull this off?

    Russo replies: “Some players are very grateful to Mendes for their football careers, and Moutinho is one among them.

    “Football players of GestiFute are aware (they are) part of a ‘Big Game’, and they accept any Jorge Mendes strategy. Their first loyalty is not for their clubs, but to GestiFute.

    “If GestiFute is part of Fosun’s system, and Wolverhampton is part of Fosun’s system, can we be sure there is not some other hidden overlapping?

    A concise – and apt – phrase to describe Mendes’ main asset is ‘guanxi’. Roughly translated as “relationships” or “connections”, it is the lubricating force within business in China – and the reason Fosun sought him out.

    This has been vital during a febrile period under president Xi Jinping. The encouragement in 2016 towards Chinese involvement in European football turned a year later into a tightening on regulations about outbound spending.

    Dalian Wanda became the first Chinese entity to divest in February, cashing in a 17-per-cent stake in Atletico for €50m (Dh209.8m) – a profit of €5m (Dh21m).

    Fosun know the dangers caused by the change of political winds. Chairman Guo Guangchang reportedly disappeared for several days in December 2015 and was questioned during Xi’s anti-corruption drive.

    “Mendes and his contacts (who combine insight and guile) have enabled the club to acquire important talent at fees and salary levels that otherwise the club might not have been able to afford,” says Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sports Enterprise, Salford University.

    “This has been important for Fosun, especially at a time when other Chinese owners of European football clubs have either struggled with their investments or else have been subject to Chinese government controls.

    “All of this has the footnote however that, at any time (and likely to be unannounced), the Chinese government could bring the whole project crashing down.”

    Wolves won three Division 1 titles in the 1950s and played an instrumental role in the creation of the European Cup.

    Modern forces have combined to renew hope of another vintage era. After decades of underachievement and frustration, Kirkland is not about to dwell on the situation.

    He says: “We’re a brand that has been overlooked, mismanaged and spent time looking into the abyss.

    “Whether these golden years last beyond Fosun’s appetite, who knows? Either way, we’re not worried, and our 10-year ambition is stratospheric.”

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