Spurs record signing exposes £3.5m loss from Brescia bankruptcy
The winding up of Brescia Calcio means the bankrupt Italian club will never receive a £3.5m solidarity payment from Sandro Tonali’s record £100m transfer to Tottenham Hotspur.
Brescia Calcio was formally wound up by a court on Tuesday, extinguishing any chance that the bankrupt Italian side would collect a £3.5m solidarity payment owed from Sandro Tonali’s £100m transfer to Tottenham Hotspur. The club, owned by Massimo Cellino, had been excluded from professional football last summer and replaced by a new entity, Union Brescia. Under FIFA’s solidarity contribution scheme, Brescia were entitled to the fee for developing Tonali between the ages of 12 and 17.
The collapse illustrates the stark financial gulf between elite European clubs and the lower-tier academies that supply their talent. While Tottenham can spend a club-record £100m on a single player, the team that nurtured him has been rendered insolvent. Reports had suggested Cellino might use the incoming transfer funds to revive Brescia Calcio in some format, but the legal ruling ended that prospect.
Union Brescia now carries the mantle for the city, playing at Stadio Mario Rigamonti, a ground previously graced by Roberto Baggio and Pep Guardiola. Tonali and his wife attended Union Brescia's Serie C play-off matches earlier this year, where the club ultimately lost to Ascoli in the final.
Tonali now links up at Tottenham with manager Roberto De Zerbi, who saved the London club from relegation last season. Both men share a deep connection to Brescia. "Brescia is so small. I had two weeks there and met him two or three times," Tonali told BBC Sport. "We spoke about Brescia, about the difficult situation facing our club."
De Zerbi’s approach to management is rooted in the economic adversity experienced by his family during the early 1990s crisis. His father, Alfredo, who served as president of Brescia's supporters' clubs, was forced to sell the family mat factory and their home. "We had to rebuild our lives from scratch," De Zerbi said in the book Football According to Roberto De Zerbi.
That working-class resilience now governs a Premier League squad worth millions. Salim Lamrani, the author who profiled De Zerbi, noted that the day after signing his first professional contract with AC Milan, the manager was at a bank securing a mortgage to buy his parents a house.
"Coming from a modest background, success has never led him to abandon his principles or his values," Lamrani said. "He knows exactly which side of the barricades he stands on: with the people."
