FC Dinamo Moskva have continued their raid on Portuguese football by paying a Russian record €10m for the FC Porto and Greece right-back Giourkas Seitaridis.
European champion
Dinamo have already recruited five Portuguese players, and on 12 May announced that Porto and Portugal pair Maniche and Costinha would arrive on 1 July having signed pre-contracts with the Muscovite club. Both players were ever-present as Portugal reached the final of UEFA EURO 2004™, only to lose 1-0 to a Greece side in which Seitaridis was a solid performer.
Transfer window
The 23-year-old has been capped 32 times by his country yet will not be considered a foreign player according to new Russian Premier-Liga regulations. Seitaridis joined Porto last summer to replace Paulo Ferreira having won the Greek double in 2003/04 with Panathinaikos FC. He played 22 times as Porto finished runners-up to SL Benfica but will only be able to represent Dinamo when the transfer window opens in July.
Record deals
The previous record for a Russian signing was the €9.5m FC Spartak Moskva paid for Fernando Cavenaghi, although Seitaridis's mark will be smashed when Maniche's €16m deal officially goes through.
