Santos ordered to pay Barcelona €3 million for Gabigol deal

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has ordered Santos to pay Barcelona 2.9 million euros for the operation which took Gabigol to Italy a few seasons ago. In 2016, the Brazilian club sold the forward to Inter Milan for a fee of around 30 million euros, but did not inform the Catalan club beforehand. In failing to warn Barcelona about the operation, Santos breached one of the clauses which had been included in the deal which took Neymar to Camp Nou, which stated that the Spanish outfit  had the right of first refusal for the player.

Once Gabigol had completed his move to Inter, Barcelona filed a complaint to the courts to defend their rights. Now, Cadena SER report that Santos must pay Barcelona compensation for not respecting the agreement which both clubs had signed several years ago. That contract stated that Barça would be given 72 hours to match Inter's offer of 30 million euros. Had they been told about the deal and acted, Gabigol would have ended up at Camp Nou, not Italy. 

Gabigol, back in Brazil with Flamengo

Despite the commotion which his move to Milan created, Gabigol didn't enjoy the kind of success which was expected in his first taste of European football. He managed to score just one goal for Inter in the 2016-17 season, with the first 10 games having been played. Later, he was loaned out to Benfica in a bid to recover the brilliant form he had shown back home. In Portugal, he played just five games and scored one goal. Since then, the 24-year-old went on a series of loans, before leaving Inter to join Flamengo for 17 million euros in January 2020.