Paraguayan midfielder Julio Cesar Torres is joining Tottenham Hotspur, according to his agent and the Bolivian media.
Both the player and his representative have attended TV show La Revista El Día, from Bolivisión, this week and talked about the details of the transfer.
This all may sound like a done deal at first, with the 21-year-old joining the Tottenham squad for next season. But little by little, you realise how strange this story is.
First is the way the Spurs move is being announced. It was the TV who said it’s happening, and asked Gonzalo Acier to explain every detail of it. The representative said ‘his work is to seek pre-agreements, a better club’, and claimed the offer ‘was received 15 days ago’.
Torres himself claimed “it would be a pride to go there (Tottenham) and show the quality and what I’m going for”.
But explaining the transfer, the agent has mixed a pre-agreement with a loan and a release clause. That’s something that any football addict, let it be a fan or an official, would find very confusing.
“We have reached a pre-agreement with the conditions of purchase of the rights,” Gonzalo Acier told Bolivision. “With a loan for a year, and the release clause. He would be moving in mid-April to present himself in the final days of the month to join the club.”
It’s not just us. Outlet ABC, from Paraguay, where the player was born, doesn’t trust the claims either.
The outlet points out that Julio Cesar Torres hasn’t played for Blooming de Santa Cruz’s first team. So if it would be strange enough for Tottenham to get a player from Bolivia in the first place, it’s even more strange to sign a footballer who isn’t playing.
ABC also points out that the Premier League has a series of requirements to grant a work permit, such as national team appearances, and Julio Cesar Torres has none.
So we’ll keep an eye on this story, because this is about to get very interesting.
