Mention Rui Pinto's name to Manchester City fans outside Etihad Stadium, and you mostly get blank faces. But while they might not know his name, they are more than familiar with his work. Pinto is the Portuguese computer hacker who tried to bring down City.
Through his website Football Leaks, he published a cache of confidential club documents, including internal emails about sponsorship deals and payments. That ultimately led to the Premier League charges for breaching of financial rules and Friday's news that the club had been found guilty of the majority of the 115 counts. For some, 37-year-old Pinto is no more than a criminal who stole information with sinister intentions.
To others, though, he is a bastion of truth who has shone a light on the darker side of the beautiful game. BBC Sport has been on a journey across Europe to find out more about the mysterious figure who was the catalyst for so much controversy. We spoke to one of Pinto's former teachers, a Portuguese politician fighting for him to be protected as a whistleblower, journalists who published the leaks, and a former financial adviser at Manchester City.
And we sat just a few feet from Pinto in the latest of his court cases. With his cherubic face and spiky hair, Pinto is instantly recognisable. And it seems he hasn't changed.
It is how Mario Falcao, his former geography teacher, remembers him. In a small courtyard garden in Portugal, we got a glimpse of what Pinto was like as a boy. "Rui was a perfectly normal pupil.
He was nice, with his spiky hair, he was quite sociable but not extrovert," Falcao said. "He had a good relationship with the teachers, although he did miss these classes quite often. His father was always on top of things, so in the end he passed quite easily." Did he spot a strong interest in computers in a young Pinto?
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