‘5 clubs in 5 years’ – Why player is thought to have failed at West Ham and others

It was in the summer of 2016 that we saw a bit of a saga when West Ham United moved to get Jonathan Calleri signed.

The Hammers spent €4.7m to loan the striker from Uruguayan side Maldonado, and with only one goal in 19 appearances, he didn’t manage to convince the London side to move for a permanent transfer.

Since then, Calleri joined the likes of UD Las Palmas, Alavés, Espanyol, Osasuna and São Paulo. And it’s about those many moves that UOL today features a story.

Rafael Reis’ blog points out that the striker played for ‘five European clubs in five years’, and couldn’t succeed at any of them, having not won a single title since that move to West Ham.

The main explanation is that Calleri belonged to Maldonado for all those years. That club is owned by agents, and they kept loaning him out with the hope that a powerful club would buy him for a significant amount at some point. That resulted in many transfers which stopped the player from having a period of adaptation, being forced to move every summer.

The story points out that West Ham was the club with the biggest financial potential to make such a signing, but, ironically enough, that’s where he had the smallest playing time.

The big change came last year. Calleri had been loaned by Maldonado to São Paulo in 2021, and the Brazilian club now bought him for €2.9m last summer.

They’re now playing the Copa do Brasil finals, and in the first leg, the striker scored the winner in the 1-0 victory over Flamengo at the Maracanã.

São Paulo will be playing the second leg at home on Sunday, and finally after having a better chance of adaptation, Calleri will have the opportunity to be the hero of an unprecedented title at the club.