The transfer markets played by Pedro Alves

With the arrival of Pedro Alves in the role of sporting director and Carlos Carvalhal in technical direction, it is somehow logical that Olympiakos’ interest in the Portuguese market is rekindled. However, the former’s samples in his five-year tenure in Estoril, but also in his three-year presence in Braga as head of the scouting department, show that he has a broad spectrum that moves.

During the 40-year-old’s time at Estoril, for example, the Portuguese team signed players from 23 different nationalities, not including Portuguese footballers of course.

Pedro Alves has contracts for footballers from Europe (Spain, France, Azerbaijan and Serbia), from South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela), from Central America (El Salvador), from Asia (Japan) and Africa (Nigeria, Ghana , Ivory Coast, Guinea, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Tunisia, Angola, Senegal and Congo).

The majority were Brazilians

In most cases, the footballers that Olympiakos’ new sporting director had the most to do with were Brazilian, and that is to be expected since Portugal is the gateway to Europe for Brazilian players.

The markets in which Estoril acquired players during Pedro Alves’ tenure were twelve in total, namely from Brazil, Italy, Germany, Spain, England, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Romania and Greece.

At the time Alves was scouting Braga, Braga was signing players including Brazilians, Argentines, Uruguayans, Serbians as well as Fiorentina’s Montenegrin Bakic, who now plays for OFI.