Wolves continued their impressive streak of signing highly-talented Portuguese stars when they announced the arrival of Matheus Nunes from Sporting Lisbon.
The attacking midfielder became the club's record signing in a deal worth around £38million on Wednesday night. He is their third summer addition following Goncalo Guedes and Nathan Collins' moves to Molineux, with Bruno Lage now searching for a forward to add to his squad before the end of the window.
Nunes' arrival, however, was aided by super agent Jorge Mendes, who continues to help surge through moves to the West Midlands club. Wolves have signed 19 players signed to Mendes' Gestifute agency since the Portuguese started spearheading signings to Molineux. That doesn't include numerous other deals brokered by the super-agent or involving other parts of the Mendes network.
It all started back in 2016 when Helder Costa joined from Benfica for £13m. Ivan Caveleiro followed in the same summer as he made the switch from Monaco. With Nuno Espirito Santo, Mendes' first ever client, becoming the club's new manager in 2017, Wolves would go on to form a stronger bond, starting with five more additions.
Ruben Neves was arguably the biggest one as he arrived on a permanent deal from Porto, before Atletico Madrid's Diogo Jota joined on a loan deal eventually made permanent. Roderick Miranda, Rafa Mir and Ruben Vinagre were amongst the other Mendes-inspired players to join Wolves that year.
Fast forward to 2018 and Wolves had secured a welcome return to the Premier League after a six-year exodus. And they continued to work with Mendes to get many more quality additions over the line. Rui Patricio, Joao Moutinho and Raul Jimenez would join the club and their transfer business paid off, as Wolves finished seventh - subsequently qualifying for the Europa League.
Jimenez made his move permanent in summer 2019 - a £34m pursuit from Benfica in a deal brokered by Mendes. Meanwhile, Pedro Neto and Bruno Jordao joined in a joint summer deal whilst Daniel Podence, also a clients of Mendes, arrived later that season as Wolves splashed the cash ahead of competing in Europe.
The biggest non-Mendes deal up until Collins' switch to Wolves last month was when Patrick Cutrone signed from AC Milan. It is safe to say it didn't work out the way the club wanted it to as the Italian struggled to adapt to English football.
Fabio Silva, who was Wolves' record signing until Nunes' switch, joined for around £35m in 2020. Whilst not represented by Mendes, he was the man who brokered that deal and earned a handsome sum, reported to be around £6.4million, in the process. Nelson Semedo and Rayan Ait-Nouri were the other players to sign that summer, both represented by Mendes. Vitinha also joined on loan before heading back to Porto and since earning a big-money move to Paris Saint-Germain.
That was followed by Jose Sa and Francisco Trincao joining last summer, although the latter has since returned to Barcelona and joined Sporting Lisbon on loan after an unsuccessful spell which did not see him earn a permanent move.
From 2016 to the present day, Wolves have spent around £450m on transfer fees. They have brought in 65 first-team players either permanently or on loan in that time.
Of that £450m, it is estimated around £330m has been spent on players who are either Gestifute clients, or in a deal facilitated by Mendes. That covers 43 of the 65 players Wolves have brought in.
19 Jorge Mendes clients signed by Wolves: Diogo Jota, Goncalo Guedes, Ruben Neves, Pedro Neto, Matheus Nunes, Vitinha, Nelson Semedo, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Daniel Podence, Francisco Trincao, Jose Sa, Rafa Mir, Rui Patricio, Helder Costa, Ivan Cavaleiro, Joao Moutinho, Bruno Jordao, Christian Marques, Roderick Miranda + numerous other deals brokered involving the agent.
