Lyon barely survived in Ligue 1 despite massive debts and an initial relegation ruling, but John Textor, owner of the Eagle Football Group – and both the French giant and Brazil’s Botafogo – has decided to put on a show in South America.Botafogo has just completed the second-most expensive transfer in its history, paying €23 million to Nottingham Forest for defensive midfielder Danilo!?Craque, jovem, multicampeão e novo pitbull do Clube Mais Tradicional! Bem-vindo, Danilo! 🌟✍🏽 #VamosBOTAFOGO pic.twitter.com/0wZELCtpK2— Botafogo F.R. (@Botafogo) July 18, 2025 What raises eyebrows, however, is the timing: just days earlier, Botafogo sold Junior Santos and Igor Jesus to Nottingham Forest for a combined €23.6 million – virtually the same amount they’ve now spent to bring Danilo in. Coincidence or not, it’s certainly curious, to say the least…Interestingly, Eagle Football initially targeted Danilo as a reinforcement for Lyon. But with the seven-time French champions mired in a financial abyss and forced into austerity and debt management, any move to France quickly became impossible. According to Globo Esporte, there are no current plans to send Danilo to Lyon in the future, but only time will tell. ##EDITORS_CHOICE##After all, John Textor also assured the public last winter, after meeting with France’s National Directorate of Management Control, that Lyon faced no risk of relegation.Given Danilo’s status as the second-most expensive player in Botafogo’s history, it’s worth revisiting the trajectory of the club’s record signing, Thiago Almada – now officially an Atletico Madrid player. Last summer, Almada left Atlanta United to join Botafogo in a deal worth €24.15 million. At the time, it seemed like a generous gift from Textor to the fans. However, it later emerged that Almada was not acquired by Botafogo per se, but by Textor’s Eagle Football Group, which also controls Lyon.Almada went on to dominate Brazilian and South American football during his six months in Rio before being transferred to Lyon. He’d likely still be there had Lyon not suffered a financial meltdown under Textor’s stewardship.##NAJAVA_MECA_9023562##As for Danilo, two and a half years after leaving Palmeiras for the Premier League, he has now returned home – welcomed in Rio as Botafogo’s new “pit bull”. Globo reports that the 24-year-old made his decision after a conversation with Davide Ancelotti.During the 2022/23 season, Danilo played a crucial role in helping Forest stay in the Premier League, scoring several key goals. But he struggled the following year and saw his 2024/25 campaign derailed by an ankle injury in the opening round. He was sidelined for nearly six months, and Eliot Anderson took his place in the starting lineup.We’re now clearly seeing a pattern of transfers between clubs owned by John Textor and Evangelos Marinakis. Last year, Orel Mangala and Moussa Niakhate moved from Nottingham Forest to Lyon, while this year, Brazilian duo Junior Santos and Igor Jesus made the trip in the opposite direction to the City Ground.
