Few clubs in Europe can rival the youth development legacy of Portuguese giants Sporting CP.
While global icons like Cristiano Ronaldo and Rafael Leao are among their most famous academy graduates, Sporting have also shown a sharp eye for international talent; players who can make an immediate impact and later be sold for profit, helping to fuel the club’s ongoing cycle of success.
The most recent example is Viktor Gyokeres. Signed from Championship club Coventry City in the summer of 2023 for a club-record £20 million, the Swedish striker went on to enjoy two hugely successful seasons in Lisbon, where he scored a glut of goals, lifted three trophies, and picked up numerous individual accolades.
Gyokeres has now returned to England with Arsenal, who will hope that the Swedish striker is the missing piece in their pursuit of the Premier League title. The Gunners spent £55 million plus £8.7 million in add-ons, bringing the total to £63.7 million, making him Sporting’s second-biggest sale ever.
So, who else makes up Sporting’s top 10 most expensive departures?
10. Nani (£21m)
- To: Man Utd
- Date: July 2007
And they say lightning does not strike twice. Although Nani wouldn’t be able to fully replicate Ronaldo’s success or numbers, he did become someone Ferguson would turn to for a big moment after his former Portuguese teammate left for Real Madrid.
A steep decline and competition for places ultimately saw him leave for pastures new, but perhaps the lack of appreciation for Nani’s Premier League career can partly be explained by the fact ‘assists’ were yet to be truly popularised in his hey day. According to Opta, no player to play over 5,000 minutes of league football for Man Utd has averaged an assist as frequently for the club as Nani.
Nani would later return to Sporting CP in 2018 and scored the winning penalty to win the 2019 Taca da Liga Final. He hung up his boots in December 2024 following a spell at Portuguese side Estrela da Amadora.
9. Adrien Silva (£22m)
- To: Leicester City
- Date: August 2017
Following their against-all-odds Premier League triumph, Leicester City were ready to establish themselves as one of England’s top sides. In order for that to happen, cash needed to be splashed. Looking to strengthen their midfield options, Adrien Silva was recruited from Sporting in August 2017 but he struggled to break into the Foxes starting eleven.
Of course, he wasn’t helped by the fact his transfer documents arrived with FIFA 14 seconds late, meaning he was ineligible to play for his new club until January 2018. Silva was understandably annoyed with FIFA’s trivial nature, but rules are rules and his Leicester career never really got going.
He swiftly exited, initially joining Monaco on loan before completing a permanent switch to Sampdoria and more recently Al Wahda, Rio Ave, and now Dubai United.
8. Islam Slimani (£28m)
- To: Leicester City
- Date: August 2016
Adrien Silva wasn’t the first Sporting player to join Leicester. Before he linked up with Jamie Vardy and company, Islam Slimani was signed to alleviate some of the pressure on the former England international’s shoulders, but the Algerian marksman wasn’t able to acclimatise to England’s top division.
He would ultimately play 36 times, registering eight goals, before embarking on a journey that has since led him back to wearing green-and-white briefly in 2022. He has since been on the move multiple times and is currently at Algerian side CR Belouizdad.
While Slimani’s club career has been a mixed bag, he’s an icon in Algeria, becoming their record goalscorer in October. To date, he’s hit the net 46 times in 102 caps.
7. Nuno Mendes (£34m)
- To: PSG
- Date: July 2021
A Sporting academy product, Nuno Mendes first joined PSG on loan for the 2021/22 season, having made 47 appearances for his boyhood club. In his first season in France, Mendes played 37 times across all competitions, eventually making the left-back slot his own ahead of Abdou Diallo and Juan Bernat.
Mendes has since won a whole host of trophies, including the quadruple in 2024/25, while he was named the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year award in 2022/23.
6. Joao Mario (£34m)
- To: Inter Milan
- Date: August 2016
Joao Mario played a huge part in some cup successes for Sporting in 2015 and was very much a player on the rise when Inter came calling in August 2016 — when the midfielder was fresh from winning Euro 2016 with Portugal.
Mario never did fulfil the huge sum Inter paid for his services and fell out with former boss Luciano Spalletti due to a lack of regular starts. Loan spells at West Ham and Lokomotiv Moscow followed, while he made a temporary return to Sporting last season, playing 28 Primeira Liga games as they finally regained the title.
You’d think that would be a fairytale story, but Mario has since joined fierce Lisbon rivals Benfica, and now Besiktas.
5. Pedro Porro (£39m)
- To: Tottenham
- Date: February 2023
Pedro Porro isn’t an academy product at Sporting, and only permanently joined them in the summer of 2022, though he spent the previous two years with the club on loan from Manchester City.
Growing his stock while in Portugal, Porro returned to England in 2023, where he initially joined Tottenham Hotspur on loan, and went on to sign permanently for £39m that summer.
The right-back has been a key performer for Spurs and lifted the Europa League trophy in 2024/25.
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4. Matheus Nunes (£42.2m)
- To: Wolves
- Date: August 2022
Signed when he was 20, Matheus Nunes spent a short time with Sporting’s reserves side before making the step up to the senior team and he played a major part in their title win in 2021. His performances caught the eye of Premier League side Wolves, who made the midfielder their most-expensive signing in a club-record deal worth just over £42m.
The Portugal international spent only one full season at Wolves before Manchester City signed him for £53 million. Since arriving, he hasn’t secured a regular starting spot, instead being used in a more versatile role across multiple positions, most prominently at right-back. Pep Guardiola even, quite harshly, said that Nunes is “not clever enough” to play in midfield for the club.
3. Manuel Ugarte (£51m)
- To: PSG
- Date: July 2023
PSG spent £51m on Manuel Ugarte in the summer of 2023, where he made 37 appearances and lifted the Ligue 1 title. But, just a year later, the Uruguay international was on the move again – this time to Manchester United – for a near identical £50.5m.
Ugarte featured 29 times in the Premier League and made 10 appearances in the Europa League, but was an unused substitute in the final defeat to Tottenham.
2. Viktor Gyokeres (£63.7m)
- To: Arsenal
- Date: July 2025
The newest name on this list, all eyes will be on Gyokeres to see how he fares at Arsenal as the club goes in pursuit of silverware in 2025/26.
Gyokeres will hope to hit the ground running in front of goal for his new side. He arrives in London fresh off the back of a stunning return of 54 goals in 52 games in all competitions for Sporting CP in 2024/25, where he won the league and Golden Boot for the second successive year.
1. Bruno Fernandes (£67.6m)
- To: Man Utd
- Date: January 2020
Manchester United had been crying out for inspiration, and in January 2020, they turned to Sporting CP once again, spending £67.6 million to bring in Bruno Fernandes. It was a familiar path – one that worked wonders with Cristiano Ronaldo and, to a lesser extent, Nani – so expectations were high.
While the club itself hasn’t made consistent progress since his arrival, and endured a particularly dismal 2024/25 campaign, individually Fernandes has run up some incredible numbers, hitting 98 goals and 86 assists in just shy of 300 appearances for the club.
Now club captain, Fernandes remains the driving force in United’s midfield and it’s hard to imagine where the team would be without him. But with fresh attacking reinforcements brought in this summer, he’ll be aiming to lead United out of their current struggles and into a brighter chapter.