Lucas Paquetá says the betting investigation that later cleared him of major charges cost him a move to Manchester City, a club he’d long wanted to join. The episode also shaped his exit from West Ham United and, in his view, changed the course of his career. His account puts the focus on a consequence that a later clearance couldn’t undo: the transfer opportunity passed while the case was still unresolved.
That distinction matters. A player can be cleared of serious allegations and still face practical consequences from the time and uncertainty involved in an investigation. Paquetá’s comments don’t establish every detail of how the proposed transfer might have unfolded, but they show how he understands the missed move: as a turning point that arrived before he had a chance to return to the market on the same terms.
Paquetá now plays for Flamengo in Brazil, after joining from West Ham for €42 million in January. He was accused of deliberately seeking yellow cards in four matches during 2022 and 2023 to influence betting markets. An Independent Regulatory Commission eventually cleared him of the major spot-fixing and betting misconduct charges, but the case had already disrupted his plans.
The sequence is central to the story. The allegations emerged while Manchester City were pursuing him, and the transfer stopped progressing. The eventual outcome resolved the major charges, but it came after the club had withdrawn from negotiations. For a footballer weighing his next move, that gap between accusation and clearance can matter as much as the final decision.
A deal that stalled
Manchester City were pursuing Paquetá in August 2023, with reports putting the potential fee at £80 million. The move was said to have been agreed in principle and close to completion before the allegations emerged. City first paused the deal, then withdrew from negotiations.
That reported fee gives a sense of the scale of the proposed move, though it doesn’t guarantee that the transfer would have been completed under any circumstances. Transfers depend on more than a player’s preference: clubs have to settle terms, complete their checks and remain willing to proceed. In this case, the investigation became a major obstacle before the deal could be finalized.
Paquetá discussed the transfer in a recent TikTok question-and-answer session. As reported by Omatogrossense, he said he didn’t regret his choices, while acknowledging that the investigation derailed the move.
“I didn’t end up going to City because of the investigation I went through, you, see?” he said.
His answer is personal, and it should be read that way. It tells us how Paquetá connects the investigation to the failed transfer; it doesn’t provide a full account of the clubs’ negotiations or prove what would have happened if the allegations hadn’t emerged. Still, the timing he describes is clear: City’s interest came first, the investigation intervened, and the transfer was abandoned.
When someone asked whether he had really wanted to play in Manchester, given the possibility of joining clubs such as Real Madrid or Barcelona, Paquetá was direct: “No, it was City—it was City. I’ve always really liked City.”
That answer cuts through the usual transfer speculation about which destination carries the greatest prestige. Paquetá was asked about other prominent clubs, but he didn’t present City as a stepping stone or a fallback. He described it as the destination he personally wanted. For him, then, the loss wasn’t simply the failure to join another major club; it was the loss of a specific ambition.
The cost of the delay
Paquetá said the case took so long that, by the time he was cleared, a City transfer was no longer possible. He was at a different point in his career, and the move had fallen out of his immediate plans.
That’s the lasting weight of the episode for him: the eventual clearance couldn’t restore the opportunity that disappeared while the investigation was underway. His move to Flamengo gives him a fresh chapter, but the City transfer remains an unresolved “what if.”
This is more significant than it looks. In football, a player’s value and fit are assessed at a particular moment, with clubs making decisions based on the information and circumstances they have then. When a proposed move stalls, there’s no guarantee it can simply be restarted later. The buying club may have moved on, the player’s priorities may have changed, and the original opening may have closed.
(And this is the part most people overlook.) A clearance can settle the central question of whether major charges were proven, while leaving the career consequences of the process in place. That doesn’t mean the investigation was improper or that City would definitely have signed Paquetá. It means the timetable itself mattered to the outcome he describes.
If you’re working in this space, the case is a reminder that transfer stories have a human timeline as well as a financial one. A reported fee and an agreement in principle can make a move sound nearly complete, but those details don’t erase the uncertainty that comes before a final deal. Paquetá’s account shows how quickly a player’s plans can change when that uncertainty lands at a decisive moment.
And yet, his comments don’t frame the story as regret over every decision he made. He said he didn’t regret his choices, even as he acknowledged what the investigation cost him. That tension is revealing: he can accept the path he took and still feel the loss of a move he wanted. The opportunity is gone. The feeling hasn’t disappeared with it.
His move to Flamengo marks the next stage of his career, while his remarks keep the City transfer in view as a missed possibility rather than a completed chapter. Whether he’ll return to the same kind of opportunity is unknown from the information available here. For now, the clearest point is his own: City was the club he wanted, and the investigation came between him and that move.
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