Selling an important starter at the very end of the transfer window and replacing him with a risky bet: Anderlecht may have shot themselves in the foot by letting Nilson Angulo leave. But management actually didn’t really hesitate.
It was a new blow for RSC Anderlecht supporters the day after the humiliating defeat at Sclessin: the announcement of the departure, with immediate effect, of Nilson Angulo for Sunderland. The Mauve & Blanc received 17 million euros for their Ecuadorian winger – a sum which could be close to the 20 million including bonus, from which a percentage intended for Angulo’s training club must be deducted.
But while the transfer window closed a few hours later and the Anderlecht core was already too weak for its ambitions, this departure was seen as a new failure of sports management. Except that, according to The Latest Newsshe did not hesitate and even felt that her back was against the wall.
Angulo wanted to leave last summer
Indeed, our Dutch-speaking colleagues reveal that Nilson Angulo himself viewed a departure very favorably last summer and his entourage even, at the time, threatened to use the famous “law of ’78” to force a transfer. An agreement was finally reached with Anderlecht, but the trust was broken. An offer from the Premier League, after RSCA turned down offers from La Liga last summer, was too good.
Then, the way the rest of the transfer window unfolded also influenced this choice. Anderlecht has not managed to part ways with Yari Verschaeren and Mario Stroeykens (at least at the time of writing: the Turkish market remains open until Thursday), and some big salaries (Rits, Foket, Flips) are still there. Selling Angulo saved the furniture.
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Many believe that the Ecuadorian, who will play in the World Cup next June, would then have seen his market value explode. It is true that Angulo tends to show his best side with his national team. But it remains a gamble, which can go wrong if the player gets injured or misses his tournament. For several months, Nilson Angulo had been evolving at a catastrophic level, which did not necessarily bode well for a market value multiplied by two or three in 2026.
In Anderlecht, a memory still haunts the corridors (and is still the subject of recurring jokes): the aborted departure of Francis Amuzu for OGC Nice, for a sum of around 10 million euros. Felice Mazzù had gone out of his way to keep a player who would never again be worth such a sum and would end up leaving Anderlecht through the back door. The new management of the club could not afford such a scenario.
