On Saturday, South African soccer star Lyle Foster made history, becoming the most expensive South African footballer to date after he was transferred from his former club, Orlando Pirates, to English side Burnley for a record-breaking fee of R210 million. Foster, 22, is a product of the Pirates academy and made a handful of appearances for the Buccaneers following his promotion in 2017.
In January 2019, he was sold to French giants Monaco for a lucrative R20 million. Under FIFA rules, clubs who have developed a player should be compensated for the training incurred whenever the player is transferred internationally up to the age of 23.
This includes a compensation in the form of a solidarity payment, which is distributed to all clubs that trained the player between his 12th and 23rd birthday, proportionally depending on the number of years spent at each club.
However, the Buccaneers waived compensation on all of Foster’s future sales when he was sold to Monaco as a teenager. Foster subsequently moved to Portuguese side Vitoria Guimaraes and Belgian side KVC Westerlo before his record-breaking transfer to Burnley.
Foster broke the transfer record for a South African previously held by Benni McCarthy when he moved from Ajax Amsterdam to Celta Vigo for R111 million in 1999. While Westerlo could have had an agreement with Guimaraes for a sell-on fee, Pirates are not expected to cash in on Foster’s deal.
FIFA have set a percentage of up to 5 percent that should be withheld from the transfer fees and distributed proportionally between clubs, depending on the number of years the player spent at each club. Pirates could have benefitted from a pool of at least around R10, 5 million that would have been distributed between four clubs, including Monaco, Guimaraes and Westerlo.
