Israeli agent Pini Zahavi received £900,000 from Chelsea for setting up Wayne Bridge’s move to Manchester City in January.
This was the only publicly confirmed fee paid to an agent in the £70m that the Premier League declared was paid by clubs to agents between October 2008 and September 2009.
But this may only be the tip of the iceberg in the Israeli’s earnings. He reportedly received £500,000 in the summer for helping City sign Joel Lescott from Everton, while Portsmouth are said to owe Zahavi and fellow Jewish agent Jonathan Barnett £3 million for transfers involving Sulley Muntari, Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe.
In recent years, Zahavi reportedly received up to £3 million for taking Yakubu Ayegbeni from Portsmouth to Middlesbrough and £500,000 from Manchester United for persuading
Fulham to part with Louis Saha.
Zahavi is currently in Barcelona discussing the future of Gai Assulin. The 18-year-old Israeli will be out of contract in the summer and is entitled to conduct pre-contract talks with other clubs next month. Zahavi is unlikely to agree a contract extension for Assulin unless he is convinced that the midfielder will be given opportunities in the first team.
Assulin has only played in Kings Cup matches and seems far from the European champions’ first team, although he was on the bench for the match against Dynamo Kiev.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who confirmed he will buy in
January, is reportedly waiting to swoop.
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