The only terms under which Quina, born in Guinea-Bissau, on the west African coast, and now a Portuguese citizen, could have signed for Chelsea before his 16th birthday in November last year was if the club had obtained an international transfer certificate.
Those are issued when a player moves country for what Fifa calls non-football reasons – for instance, a parent’s change of job meaning that a family has to move overseas.
With no prospect of acquiring one of those, Quina was associated with Chelsea but – according to sources – never officially signed for them.
Chelsea declined to say how many games he played for the club as a trialist or over how many years he played in those games, but under the conditions it would have been impossible for him to play in competitive academy fixtures given his status. As a consequence he was free to make a decision on where he signed as a scholar at the age of 16 and ultimately decided to move away from the club.
Given that he was not a registered player at Chelsea, West Ham will not be liable to pay any training compensation. It will be a matter for Fifa whether any compensation is due to Benfica, with whom he was previously registered.
These issues matter because breaking Fifa’s rules on the transfer of under-18s has had severe consequences for other major clubs in Europe, not least Barcelona, who were unsuccessful in their appeal against sanctions that meant they were fined and banned from registering new players in both windows last year. Fifa found them guilty of breaking the rules in the transfer and registration of 10 minors, including boys from South Korea and Cameroon.
Sam Wallace of the Telegraph on how Chelsea lost out to West Ham for Portuguese teenage prodigy Domingos Quina.
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