When rumours of Ronaldo Vieira leaving Leeds United first started in the summer window, many fans of the club didn’t exactly buy it.
That was absolutely fair, Leeds are involved in more transfer rumours than many Premier League clubs and the majority are nonsense. It didn’t make a great deal of sense on the face of it for the Championship club to sell a young player they believed was so promising.
It quickly became apparent it was all more than just another rumour, Vieira landing at Genoa airport, and being pictured doing so, served to underline that.
Italian reports had the agreed fee at €5m plus bonuses and in England the €7m figure was used, so off the 20 year old went to Sampdoria, with the deal being agreed at the end of July.
Vieira was brought in as one for the future rather than the present, and an investment for the Serie A club, but he’s already impressing.
Cheikh Fall, agent of Sampdoria’s Omar Colley, has been speaking to TMW about his own client and at the end was asked: “In conclusion: you see a lot of Samp, who has impressed you the most?”
Fall answered: “Attention to Ronaldo Vieira, he has not played so much, but he has already given a glimpse of his qualities: he is a central midfielder who is always in the game, who never looks for the fancy but always finds himself in the right place at the right time. And then he’s a ’98 (year he was born), he has everything to grow and establish himself.”
Vieira has only played 26 Serie A minutes since leaving Leeds United, so he’s either impressed the agent hugely in that time, or Fall has been watching some training sessions too.
There was no mention of a sell clause in the transfer, one which would entitle Leeds to a percentage of future profit, but it’d be no surprise if there is one.
