Football: record transfer, combative scorer, revealed late… Who is Vitinha, OM’s most expensive new recruit?

It is therefore on Vitinha that Olympique de Marseille has decided to bet. As the winter transfer window was coming to an end, OM formalized their third recruit on Tuesday, January 31, after the arrivals of Ruslan Malinovskyi and Azzedine Ounahi. While the leaders were actively looking for a striker to compensate for the departure of Bamba Dieng to Lorient and the failure of Terem Moffi, Vitor Manuel Carvalho Oliveira, whose real name is, completes the offensive ranks of Olympians. Decisive since the start of the season, the young striker (22), who came to light late with Sporting Club de Braga, became the most expensive recruit in the history of OM.

Record transfer and buyout clause

According to the Braga club, this transfer amounts to 32 million euros. A milestone reached by Olympique de Marseille, because the club had never spent so much to secure the services of a single player. Vitinha therefore becomes the most expensive player in the history of the club ahead of Dimitri Payet (30 million euros), when he returns in 2017. If the Marseille leaders were able to afford such a transaction, it is because of several departures recorded this winter (Gerson in Flamengo, Bamba Dieng in Lorient).

With the key to a four-and-a-half-year contract, running until 2027, SC Braga and Marseille have concluded that in the event of the player’s sale, the Portuguese club would recover 10% of the capital gain. That’s not all, as Braga have a buyout clause, ie the possibility to buy the player’s rights unconditionally for the sum of 60 million euros. In the event of future resale by the Portuguese club following this takeover, the Marseille club would receive 10% of the capital gain.

A profile that sticks to the game of Igor Tudor

Author of 13 goals and five assists in 27 games with Braga, the center forward is making an excellent start to the season. As specified by the Marseille club in a press release, the right-handed striker (1m83) is “a powerful, dynamic and combative centre-forward, who does not hesitate to take his chances in front of goal. But not only : “He is thatable to trigger pressing, repeat high intensity runs with or without the ball”adds his new club. Qualities that fit perfectly with the game advocated by the Marseille coach, Igor Tudor.

By paying such a sum during a transfer window supposed to make more adjustments than investments, OM affirms its ambition to consolidate its place on the podium, in order to remain in the Champions League. This arrival will especially allow coach Igor Tudor to have a new offensive cartridge. After the departure of Dieng, this transfer adds an additional option to the center forward position at OM, which only had Alexis Sanchez in this position.

Turned professional late

While many young players are signing professional contracts at younger and younger ages, Vitinha made his debut late in life. Indeed, the Portuguese hopeful signed his first professional contract last year, at the age of 21. He is therefore playing his second pro season this year during the 2022/2023 financial year.

In barely two years, he has played 67 games and scored 28 goals with his training club. Statistics that have earned him the solicitations of several English clubs and even a preselection in the list of Fernando Santos for the World Cup in Qatar. It remains to be seen whether the one who played with the Portuguese national under-21 team will be one of the future names checked by the new coach Roberto Martinez and will make his name known to the general public with his arrival at Olympique de Marseille.