Club are third in top flight after a rapid rise assisted over the past 18 months by a billionaire owner and agent Jorge Mendes
Famalicão’s players are used to performing in front of crowds of 5,000 at a club that was languishing in Portugal’s local amateur leagues a decade ago. When they take the pitch at Benfica’s 65,000-capacity Estádio da Luz on Saturday it will complete a rapid rags-to-riches story made possible by funding from one of Israel’s richest men and his growing relationship with football’s most famous agent, Jorge Mendes.
The
Israeli is Ider Ofer, whose father is the shipping magnate Sammy Ofer and who has raised most of his estimated $5bn fortune through his shipping, drilling and mining businesses. After Ofer increased his stake in Atlético Madrid from 15% to 32% in February 2018 through his Guernsey-based holding company Quantum Pacific, he decided to expand his involvement in football. His first port of call was Mendes, who had helped in negotiations with Atlético’s then Chinese shareholders Wanda Group the previous year through his Gestifute agency.