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Criminal or hero? The hacker who brought down Man City
Rui Pinto, the Portuguese hacker behind Football Leaks, is viewed by some as a criminal and by others as a whistleblower whose stolen documents ultimately led to Manchester City being found guilty of the majority of 115 Premier League financial rule breaches.
The man who brought Manchester City to their knees is living in a secret location under armed guard — and he has been watching the Premier League verdict closely.
BBC Sport has profiled Rui Pinto, the 37-year-old Portuguese hacker whose Football Leaks website published confidential City documents — including internal emails about sponsorship deals and payments — that ultimately triggered the unprecedented 115-charge case, with the club found guilty of the majority of counts on Friday.
Pinto set up Football Leaks in 2015, declaring his intention to expose “the hidden side of football.” He later shared more than three terabytes of documents — equivalent to 3,000 copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica — with Der Spiegel and a European investigative journalism consortium, implicating clubs, agents and players including Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
His lawyer confirmed Pinto had monitored the City case intently from witness protection. “It would be important for him to feel vindicated that it was useful, that something happened because of what he said,” Francisco Texeira da Mota said.
Opinion on Pinto remains sharply divided. Former Portuguese MEP Ana Gomes called him “by far the most important whistleblower” in Portugal, dismissing City’s grievances bluntly: “If they have nothing to hide, what’s their problem?” But Benfica’s legal representative was equally blunt in the opposite direction: “He’s a hacker, period, just like that. What he did is not allowed — it’s a crime and there are no excuses.”
Pinto, who received a four-year suspended sentence in Portugal in 2023, grew up modestly in Vila Nova de Gaia. His former teacher described him as “perfectly normal” — with a gift for computers.