'Rent Markovic? Then we can talk to Doku '

OTHER Anderlecht, and many other clubs, already have discussions with major clubs about the future of youth players for this 16-year-old. This is evident from Football Leaks documents. De Standaard tells the stories of Jeremy Doku and Evangelos Patoulidis.


Fall 2011. The 15-year-old Matthias Bossaerts is courted by Manchester City. Anderlecht are powerless, because only when he is 16 years old he can sign a contract, and sees the defender moved to England for barely 75,000 euros. His training allowance. Anderlecht did not want something like that anymore. If top talent depart, it wants to receive at least a 'correct' transfer fee.

Spring 2015. 13-year-old Evangelos Patoulidis has been enjoying interest from the same Manchester City for some time now. Anderlecht and City will sit around the table together to discuss the future of Patoulidis. Anderlecht wants to keep Patoulidis, but his father wants to leave. Anderlecht let City know that it wants to catch two million euros for "one of his biggest future talents". City offers one and a half million euros for a transfer on Patoulidis' sixteenth birthday. If the transfer does not go through, then it wants three million euros in compensation from purple and white. The latter is not to the liking of Anderlecht. On the reaction from Anderlecht that it wishes to share in the profit with a future transfer, there is no response from City. More than a year later, City again gives a sign of life and asks whether Patoulidis may come to test. "We do not agree because too many points remain unclear," answers Anderlecht. In the summer of 2017 Patoulidis goes to Standard.

January 31, 2018. Anderlecht grabs next to Aleksandar Mitrovic and points his arrows at Lazar Markovic. Liverpool only wants to cooperate with a Markovic loan if it is allowed to talk in exchange with the then 15-year-old Jeremy Doku. Anderlecht give that permission and even put it on paper. However, it does not come to a transfer. In May, the new chairman Marc Coucke announced that Doku signs his first professional contract with Anderlecht.

"You are stupid if you do not negotiate in advance"

De Standaard asked Anderlecht and Manchester City for a reaction, but they did not get it. Herman Van Holsbeeck wanted to give a word of explanation. "You are a fool if you do not negotiate in advance. If you wait until a player is 16 years old, before you enter into a contract with the interested club, you will only receive the training allowance", says the former Anderlecht manager.

In the case of Doku, Anderlecht were under heavy pressure according to Van Holsbeeck. "The first team did not perform satisfactorily, the only alternative we had at the time was to hire Markovic with a clause that Liverpool could talk to Doku. If you look back at it, that clause might have been problematic, but back then we had no other choice."