The clubs hostage of the will of the players: the stories of Osimhen and Vlahovic and beyond. Here is what they cost international and Italian football commissions and contracts that end up holding the market hostage
Nobody pointed a gun at Maurizio Arrivabene’s temple when in January 2022 he spread and countersigned the contract that would have linked Dusan Vlahovic to Juventus for the following four and a half years. And nobody threatened Aurelio De Laurentiis to make him grant an out of market engagement for the habits of Napoli in order to get out of the contractual impasse of Victor Osimhen, now a former idol of the Neapolitan fans.
All true. There has been no constraint, but the story of two of the most important attackers of European football is symptomatic today of how (deteriorated) relationships have evolved in international football. The will of the players counts, often their whims. The needs of the clubs, sometimes real economic and financial emergencies weighs little or nothing at the mercy of the desires of their top players and their respective entourages.
To say, The Juventus and Naples markets in the start phase of the summer 2025 are hostage to the will of Vlahovic and Osimhenwhich on paper should be circular checks to be monetized to reinvest and, on the other hand, have turned into problems to be solved in which the certainty is that the deal will do it – players and entourage – and hardly others, that is, those who put the money.
For Juventus and Naples they are hostages of Vlahovic and Osimhen
Two paradigmatic stories. Victor Osimhen, after the ride of the Scudetto signed by Luciano Spalletti, practically eclipse himself. First a disappointing season, then the arm wrestling with the company. In the middle, the signature of a very rich extension of one year (12 million euros net per season) without which Napoli would have lost it on a zero parameter and which marked the last concrete act of the Nigerian because from then on its contribution has vanished.
A year ago De Laurentiis solved the embarrassment in extremis by sending it (free) on loan to the Galatasaray in Istanbul. Now that the clause has halved (from 130 to 75 million euros), he would have sold it to the Arabs of the Al Hilal With full satisfaction but Osimhen said no and put herself sideways. Legitimate. He would like to be in Türkiye, where they scramble and is not in the plastic football of Saudi Arabia, only that Galatasaray does not go over 50-60 million euros which are a gift given the player’s value. Who, supported by the agents, thinks that the sacrifice must do Napoli, both he can never think about giving up something.
The same for Dusan Vlahovicseparated at home at Juventus. From 1 July 2025 he earns one million euros net per month and weighs on the Juventus budget for over 40, contract expiring on June 30, 2026. He has made it known that he wants to expire even at the cost of not playing, or of wanting all the money in case of painful – for the Juventus accounts – termination of the cessation. He and his prosecutor Ristic. Moral: Patience that Vlahovic has been disappointing in the last vintages, he has the knife on the handle together with the entourage which in turn possibly claims Lauta commission for the disorder to move the Serbian from Turin.
The impact of agents and intermediaries on football: a 700 million euro account
Here, agents who are now a fixed tax in international football. The latest data published by FIFA, relating to the calendar year 2024, say that the account was 683.4 million euros slightly decreasing compared to 856 in 2023. Small consolation since it was a folding in contrast on a curve now rapidly growing and that not even the attempts to stop have put under control.
The part of the lion made the European clubs with 85% of the total and in the deck the Premier League has always distinguished themselves where the money seem to abound: 185.8 million euros spent on the commissions item, followed by Serie A (90.8), Portugal (60.9), Spain (52.9), Saudi Arabia (42.3) and France (42.2).
Prosecutors and intermediation, how much Serie A spends
Also broadening to the intermediation, the account for Serie A is even heavier. In 2024, official data from the Football Federation, the total touched 226.171 million euros. To pay especially the big names. Here is the ranking:
- Juventus: 33,989,949.48 euros
- Inter: 24,737,661.00 euros
- Naples: 18,184,273.62 euros
- Rome: 17.108,857.50 euros
- Milan: 15,295,975.47 euros
- Atalanta: 14,331,146.96 euros
- Verona: 13,990,552.85 euros
- Fiorentina: 11.503,695.53 euros
- Lazio: 10,642,160.00 euros
- Bologna: 10.303,335.14 euros
- Udinese: 8,416,856.33 euros
- Genoa: 8,092,892.60 euros
- Parma: 6.070,110.75 euros
- Como: 6.160.135.71 euros
- Lecce: 5,250,697.85 euros
- Monza: 4,793,202.33 euros
- Turin: 4,371,000.00 euros
- Empoli: 4,259,527.24 euros
- Cagliari: 4,053,757.78 euros
- Venice: 4,615,221.60 euros
