Pinto, then a history undergraduate assisting his father in their antique shop, had little formal IT training. But his world was all computers from childhood, and he was, self-admittedly, “a self-taught IT genius.” He and his friends, football-obsessed hackers with varying degrees of expertise, knew sordid information about clubs and footballing superstars through illegitimate access. They decided to expose them to the world.
These were football leaks that would shake the world, expose scandals, corruption, tax evasions and manoeuvring, funny to complex clauses in players contracts, and spicy private tales. And they were born on the drunken whim of a few hackers.
Twelve years on, the 37-year-old Pinto has brought the strongest footballing empire in the world to its knees. Manchester City has been found guilty of 114 charges of 115 German publication Der Spiegel had documented in 2019. City would certainly challenge the findings of the panel that probed the allegedly illegal deals, but the scandal has shaken the moral edifice of the world’s richest and most competitive league.
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, right, celebrates with teammates after scoring his side’s opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Liverpool in Manchester, England, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
The drama and intrigue could drag on for several years, and City with all its financial and political clout could make a mockery of evidence and investigation. But the name Pinto would be heard, uttered, and echoed for years.
The tone would differ. To some eyes, he would be a Robin Hood-styled crusader, exposing the malpractices of a terrifyingly rich sports giant. To some others, he is an illegal intruder into their privacy, a petty extortionist.
Before Pinto, there was ‘John’ – the pseudonym he operated under until 2018 when a Portuguese newspaper published his name and face after his alleged revelations of Benfica’s corrupt practices. Pinto later claimed in court that he was not the person behind the Benfica expose, but the local police had identified him as their chief suspect.
Someone then hacked the Football Leaks’ Facebook page and posted a message: ‘PJ looking for me? LOL #catchmeifyoucan’.
“It changed my life,” he confessed in court. “My photograph was on cover pages throughout the country. My Facebook account, my email address were subsequently inundated with death threats.”
Cases piled on – including charges of improper access, breach of correspondence, illegitimate access, computer sabotage, and attempted extortion of Doyen Sports Investments and its former CEO Nélio Lucas. The court found Pinto guilty of almost all of them. He was extradited from Budapest to Lisbon and spent a year in remand before he was out on bail.
Skeletons in the closets
But an amnesty for young offenders, approved due to Pope Francis’s visit to Portugal in 2023, cleared him of 79 of the 90 cases. Ever since he has been living under police witness protection at an undisclosed location. He wears a bulletproof vest, as he gets several death threats almost every day. He is certain that he would not come out alive if he spends even an hour in Lisbon prison.
In one of the numerous hearings, before a Lisbon court handed him a four-year suspended prison sentence rather than active jail time, he told the court, with a numb face: “Crime, even with good intentions, doesn’t pay. That’s the truth. Knowing what I know today, I wouldn’t get involved in something like this again. I wouldn’t do what I did again.”
“My life has been turned upside down […] My family has suffered a lot. What also troubles me is that all those involved in the Football Leaks, Malta Files, and Luanda Leaks allegations have not been remanded in custody. […] I was the only person who was deprived of my freedom.”
The leaks were not confined to the Beautiful Game — where he also unearthed the tax evasions of Jose Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo, hidden contracts details of Lionel Messi and Neymar, of the alleged rape vby Ronaldo, of Real Madrid projecting a lower transfer fee for Gareth Bale so that it didn’t dent Ronaldo’s star value, of a clause in former Liverpool star Roberto Firmino’s contract that he should not be sold to Arsenal at any cost, and how FIFA president Gianni Infantino helped City and PSG dodge Financial Fairplay regulations, supplying around 70 million documents and 3.4 terabytes of information. His lawyer claims that he has five more hard disks (passwords saved in his head) and more explosive stuff on City.
Pinto also provided a cache of information about the business empire of Africa’s richest woman, Isabel dos Santos, on how the daughter of the former Angolan emperor manipulated her status to build wealth to the tune of two billion pounds. As many as 37 global news outlets published the story, which became Luanda Files. He furnished a trove of mails, chats, contracts, audits and accounts detailing the business operation, bringing to light Malta’s off-shore corporate tax avoidance system.
More than the Robin Hood label his sympathisers have thrust on him, it’s the David metaphor that suits him more. David, who felled many Goliaths of the world. Perhaps many more are to tumble out of the secret hard disks, even though he claims he would never venture into the “world of dirt” again.
Pinto has brought the strongest footballing empire in the world to its knees. (AP) 
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, right, celebrates with teammates after scoring his side’s opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Liverpool in Manchester, England, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
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