THE HAGUE, April 7 — A Dutch court awarded €4.5 million ($4.9 million) in damages Wednesday to Netherlands international and Inter Milan centre-back Stefan de Vrij after a legal battle over a transfer with his former agent.

De Vrij dragged his long-time representative Sports Entertainment Group (SEG) to the Amsterdam District Court in February, claiming he had been disadvantaged in his move to Inter from Lazio in 2018.

The 30-year-old De Vrij accused SEG of violating disclosure obligations during transfer talks, which eventually saw him leave Lazio for Inter after months of speculation.

The former Feyenoord player also said Inter wanted to pay him a higher salary but in the end he only received a €37.5-million deal for five years.   

During the transfer "SEG said it was only negotiating on behalf of Inter, as stated within an agreement with De Vrij,” the Amsterdam District Court said.

"However, the court believed SEG was also negotiating on De Vrij’s behalf,” at the same time.

SEG received €7.5 million in commission as well as an additional €2 million for the transfer — which De Vrij said he was never told about.

"If that’s the case, the law says there has to be transparency about agreements, especially if there’s self-interest involved by the mediator (SEG) and Internazionale about renumeration,” the court said in a statement.

"SEG received a (substantial) commission and therefore had a disclosure obligation,” the court said.

The agency also had not mentioned it received an additional two million euros in compensation, nor that it would receive 7.5 per cent of a possible transfer fee, the court added.

Even if SEG told De Vrij about the €7.5-million commission "it still did not comply to the disclosure obligation.” 

"The court therefore awards De Vrij 50 per cent (€4.5 million) of what SEG received for the deal between De Vrij and Inter,” the judges said. — AFP