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Another day, another precious family jewel stolen and hocked by crazy Uncle Walter. And this time, Roma won't make the gaudy profit the club is accustomed to when selling a South American wonder-kid, at least initially. Even with the prospect of half of a future transfer fee though, this deal still feels like a loss.
As recently as a few weeks ago, Sanabria was in the cross hairs of big clubs like Tottenham and Barcelona, so how did the market for the Paraguay international suddenly dry up? Roma could've sold Sanabria for 12-15 million euros plus a potential percentage of a future transfer fee, but instead he was sold for peanuts to a Liga BBVA minnow.
When Sanabria arrived at Roma, he came with a 12 million euro price tag, which is hefty for a teenager. While it's known that Roma paid five million euros up front for Sanabria, it's unclear how much of the seven million euros in bonuses have been paid yet, if any. Considering he spent last season on loan at Sporting Gijon, all of the bonuses are likely still unpaid as they probably require Sanabria to be wearing a Roma kit.
Regardless, only making a three million euro profit on Sanabria in the short term is pitiful, especially for a club that's supposedly cash-strapped and needs money to fill out a roster while simultaneously navigating the waters of FFP. Sanabria is supposed to be Roma's cash cow, essentially a get-out-of-jail-for-free card for this summer's mercato, and this is the deal Director of Football Walter Sabatini makes? Sabatini should've asked for way more money up front.
Best case scenario, Sanabria gets sold again for 30 million euros, but who knows when that will be? And there's always a very real possibility that Sanabria won't do well at Real Betis. What would Roma do then? This deal is a fail in the short-term, and it doesn't look great in the long-term either.
Sanabria will leave Roma without scoring a goal for the senior team after making just two appearances. Surely the revolving doorman at Trigoria will help Sanabria with his luggage and thank him for his services, but I don't blame Tonny for not tipping on the way out.