Brazilian club Botafogo will begin a three-window transfer ban imposed by FIFA after failing to pay Atlanta United FC a $21 million fee for striker Thiago Almada in the summer of 2024.
The ban was posted on FIFA’s Registration Ban list and takes effect on Dec. 31, 2025.
Almada, 24, played for Botafogo across 17 games in the second half of 2024, then joined Lyon in 2025 for the remainder of the Ligue 1 season, before moving to Atlético Madrid in the summer of 2025.
The World Cup winner with Argentina in 2022 made 77 appearances and scored 23 goals for Atlanta between 2022-24 before joining Botafogo for what was at the time a record fee for an MLS player.
Atlanta maintains that it never received any of the fee — or subsequent interest — that Botafogo agreed to, before the Brazilian club reached a deal with Atleti for Almada worth between $20 million and $30 million.
In October, Botafogo, owned by American businessman John Textor, went to sport’s highest court Wednesday to dispute the fee owed to Atlanta, challenging FIFA’s order that it must pay the full amount for Almada after the first two installments went unpaid in 2024.
After the October hearing, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the FIFA-published verdict of its own judge’s ruling said Botafogo had asked «for more time to ‘sort it out,'» when the Rio de Janeiro club replied to MLS’ first request for an overdue scheduled payment on behalf of Atlanta.
Almada is a 24-year-old attacker who played one game off the bench for Argentina at the 2022 World Cup.
He now plays for Atlético Madrid, which in July became his fourth different club, including two owned by Textor, in less than 13 months.
FIFA’s verdict showed Botafogo was due to make $3 million payments to Atlanta in July and September of 2024 toward settling the full amount by September of 2026. The first two payments were missed and MLS sent default notices to Textor’s club.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
