Luis Fabiano is coming back to São Paulo (photo: São Paulo FC website)

After five seasons in Europe with Porto and Sevilla, Luis Fabiano is returning to São Paulo, the team where he shot to fame and earned his first call up to the seleção (Brazilian national team). The transfer fee is somewhere in the region of 7.6 million euros and the player has signed a four year contract. He is currently injured and only expected to make his debut towards the end of April.

The signing is a coup for São Paulo and after being in and out of the team at Sevilla this season, his market value dropped significantly. It is said that last season Sevilla turned down a 14 million euro offer from AC Milan. Fabiano never made his way to a really big European club which I’m sure he could have if he really wanted to but he is a very good player has scored goals everywhere he has been including the Brazilian national team. At 30 years of age, the player clearly still has a lot to offer and if you ask me, he is still good enough for a starting place in the seleção.

The signing is also a coup for the Brazilian national championship who are seeing their stars returning earlier (Ronaldinho) and leaving later (Ganso, Neymar). Once again, the deal seems to have been structured by these creative Brazilian marketing gurus whereby sponsors and investors will pay a large part of the transfer fee and player’s wages. The deal to bring Ronaldinho back to Brazil was something similar and a large chunk of Neymar’s salary is paid for by sponsors, rather than his club Santos.