He once played with Cristiano Ronaldo
Ex-Real star traded seafood illegally
January 16, 2025 – 11:12 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
After his glorious professional career, Fábio Coentrão devoted himself to fishing. Now, however, the Portuguese got into trouble with the authorities because of unauthorized activities.
After retiring from football in 2021, ex-professional Fábio Coentrão turned away from the football business entirely and devoted himself to fishing. But now he is in the focus of the authorities after a raid on his warehouse in Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal.
According to a report in the Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Notícias, a search by the Natural Resources, Security and Maritime Services Agency (DGRM) uncovered around a ton of seafood, much of which was undocumented and therefore illegal.
Twelve tanks with live lobsters, shrimps and spider crabs were found in the hall. There was no evidence of origin for 760 kilograms of the sea creatures. An additional 260 kilograms were documented, but Coentrão’s company does not have a license to sell them. It is also suspected that the ex-professional’s team illegally pumped water from the sea in order to keep the animals in the tanks.
Coentrão, a former Portugal international and two-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid (2014, 2017), ended his career almost four years ago to devote himself to deep-sea fishing. The 36-year-old now owns four fishing boats and last year opened a fishery products store in Póvoa de Varzim, near Porto.
The former football star emphasized that fishing has more appeal for him than the world of football: “I like life on the sea,” he once said in an interview with “Tribuna Expresso”. But: Coentrão has had problems with the Portuguese authorities in the past. His business was asked to cease operations because it lacked the necessary licenses.
After the latest incident, Coentrão could face a hefty fine. Authorities plan to release the seized marine animals back into their natural habitat as quickly as possible. Whether this marks the end of Coentrão’s fishing ventures remains to be seen.