In the midst of the crisis experienced by Alvinegro, the businessman reduced visits to Brazil and deleted his profile on a social network
When the name of someone involved in football comes out of the fan’s shirt onto the wall of the same club, usually written in graffiti, it means that things are not good. “Textor disappeared”, was the most recent message that soiled the walls of Botafogo headquarters, in General Severiano. The message in the form of protest / affirmation / despair refers to the drastic change in the behavior of the SAF investor from Botafogo in the midst of the worst black and white moment since he turned his football into a company.
When he definitively acquired SAF from Botafogo, in March 2022, John Textor arrived in Brazil in the arms of the people. He made signings and made countless promises, some fulfilled and some not. One of them, in June of that year, gave the alvinegra fans some peace of mind. When moving to add Lyon, from France, to the multi-club portfolio of his company, Eagle Holdings, the American guaranteed: “The priority is Brazil, really! The club. In France, everything has been driven by the same chairman for the past twenty years, Jean Michel Aulas, and he will continue to be chairman and CEO. My full time in the operation is and will continue to be in Botafogo”, he said in an interview with journalist Paulo Vinícius Coelho.
But reality became very different when the purchase of Lyon was sanctioned by Eagle Holdings, in December of last year. John Textor drastically reduced the visits he had been making to Brazil. Having made seven trips in 2022, so far he has only set foot in Rio de Janeiro once in 2023. And Textor’s most recent stay in Rio seems more focused on Lyon than on Botafogo, since the businessman held meetings with the Flamengo in an attempt to sign midfielder João Gomes for the French club.
Shortly afterwards, striker Jeffinho, Alvinegro’s highlight the previous season, ended up transferring to Lyon. The way the club announced the deal, first as a loan and then as a sale (the biggest in its history), did not please the alvinegra fans at all. Botafogo has not yet strengthened its sides, nor other sectors, and is making a bad start to 2023 under the command of Luís Castro. The newest failure, after almost falling in the first phase of the Copa do Brasil, was the non-qualification for the semifinals of the Campeonato Carioca.
The moment is not bad only in terms of results on the field, which make Luís Castro sway in the position of coach. Outside the four lines, Botafogo continues to live with liens and financial problems – including the same football agents with whom it needs to talk when trying to hire someone. In the midst of the crisis, the same John Textor who a year ago was a constant presence on social networks, cheering and promising, reduced his posts until he decided to delete his Twitter account.
Botafogo fans graffitied the wall of General Severiano, the club’s headquarters, against John Textor and Luís Castro:
“Love is over”
“Textor is gone”
“LC FDP”
“Where is hiring?”???? Playback pic.twitter.com/qrjLzbl6rT
— Planeta do Futebol ???? (@futebol_info) March 9, 2023
The change in posture and the bad moment of the team motivated the accusation of “disappearance”, but John Textor is still very active. According to an article on the Bloomberg website, a reference in business and finance, the American is looking for new investors to raise capital for Eagle Football, his multi-club group.
