Quote Originally Posted by jon1959 View Post
When he signed it was claimed in the press that he bought himself out of his contract to make the move happen.

In the press conference on Thursday he said something a bit different. It wasn't completely clear (something was lost in translation) but I understood that he refused a large pay rise by Trabzonspor to extend his contract with them, and also gave up two months pay at the existing contract rate to enable him to come to Cardiff without any delays. So there was some financial sacrifice at the Turkish end - bit not exactly buying out his contract.

I'm sure the club have worked within the letter of the EFL transfer restriction with Sio - if not the spirit. There can't have been a signing on fee when he arrived, but as others have said, it is unlikely he will have been seriously out of pocket over the longer term.
Maybe a loyalty bonus which I understand is usually covered over the term of a players contract so the first installment wouldn’t be paid until the summer when the ban is already over.
Or they just topped up his wage to cover whenever he lost.

Either way just goes to show there are some gems out there, really does feel like a lot of effort went into this window and fair play to the managers and transfer committee (or whatever we have now) considering we couldn’t pay any kind of fee for me it was very impressive window.