Ghanaian Division Two side Steadfast FC is about to receive a whopping $10 million in Abdul Fatawu Issahaku’s imminent transfer from Sporting Lisbon in Portugal to newly promoted English Premier League side Leicester City.
The young Ghanaian talent joined the Foxes in a season-long loan deal from Portuguese giants Sporting CP in the 2023-24 season.
Leicester City are ready to pay his agreed transfer fee of €17 million to Sporting Lisbon.
Steadfast will earn 50% of the €17 million due to the sell-on clause they inserted in the deal with Sporting CP.
What is a Sell-on Clause?
It is inserted in a transfer clause between two clubs. The club selling its player will demand a percentage of the fee the club that bought the player will get from a potential transfer of the player in future.
For Instance, Team A will sell a player to Team B. An agreement will be made between the two teams for the future transfer of the player by Team B. When Team B sells the player, then Team A will receive the said percentage agreed.
What are Abdul Fatawu Issahaku’s contract details?
20-year-old Abdul Fatawu Issahaku joined Steadfast in 2019 from Tamale Utrecht Academy before moving on loan to Dreams FC in the 2021-22 season where he showed immense glimpses in the Ghana Premier League.
It was during this period that the British giant Newspaper, The Guardian, included him in their “Next Generation” version of 2021″, and was described by them as “arguably the best African prospect of his generation”.
Fast forward, Sporting CP who are well known for nurturing Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani, Luis Figo, and Ricardo Quaresma among many legendary Portuguese footballers came calling. Fatawu signed for Sporting CP in April 2022 in a deal worth 1.3 million euros with a release clause of 60 million euros on a five-year contract.
Steadfast intelligently inserted a sell-on clause of 50% within a space of three years. With only a year left before the expiration of the sell-on clause, the Division Two side is about to make an incredible USD 10M.
Why African Clubs must include sell-on clauses in the transfer of their talents
Imagine Liberty Professionals of Ghana inserting a 50% sell-on clause in the contracts of Micheal Essien, Asamoah Gyan, Sulley Muntari, and John Paintsil. These are talented footballers that European clubs spent a fortune on. Liberty would have benefitted immensely had they included a sell-on clause in their contracts.
Africa is a football talent hub that Europe has exploited for quite a long time. They will pay a chicken fee for African footballers at a young age and sell them for a very huge amount.
Victor Osimhen is a product of Ultimate Strikers Academy. He joined Wolfsburg in 2017. He has already cost Napoli €70 million and a potential future transfer will cost more than what Napoli paid. Imagine just a 5% sell-on clause for any transfer for Ultimate Strikers Academy?
It is high time the African continent learned to use the sell-on clause in any transfer of their players to any part of the world because you never know where the player will reach.
Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali and many African countries must make it a rule so that they will financially benefit from the sell-on clause.
Ajax Amsterdam included a 10% sell-on clause in Mohammed Kudus’ transfer to Westham United.
The biggest sell-on clause is when Chelsea earned 15 million pounds from Tino Livramento’s 32M pounds move from Southampton to Newcastle in the 2023 Summer transfer window.
Chelsea also earned a whopping 10M pounds in Kelvin De Bryune’s 55M pounds move to Manchester City from Wolfsburg.
Fatawu Issahaku’s 10mill dollars is set to be bigger than that of Jude Bellingham, Raheem Sterling, Micheal Keane and John Stones’ sell-on clauses received by Birmingham City, QPR, Manchester United and Barnsley in their respective transfers to Real Madrid, Manchester City, Everton and Manchester City.
