Arsenal’s bid for Gabriel Barbosa is starting to be taken seriously in Brazil. After ESPN saying the player was excited with an offer from the Gunners, Radio Bandeirantes are claiming that everything is done between Santos and ‘a big English club’.
According to Elia Junior, the Premier League side are paying Gabigol’s €18m release clause, which doesn’t give Santos any chances of keeping the player, and it’s in the his hands now.
Gabigol officially has a €50m release clause, but his agent Wagner Ribeiro recently said that European clubs have the option of buying him for €18m.
However, if ESPN are reliable, Radio Bandeirantes aren’t quite so much. Elia Junior often breaks news that doesn’t happen and hasn’t got the best reputation among fans on social media.
We do trust ESPN Brasil and their team, so our take is that Arsenal may have made a bid, but things aren’t done yet.
Yesterday, Wagner Ribeiro told Radio Globo: “A 25 million bid for Gabriel was already given to the president and he turned it down. The athlete (Gabriel) already said he’s too young and wishes to stay at least for one more year. So, I believe he’s not leaving.”
Even Ribeiro contradicts himself when talking about the bid and the clause, so it’s hard to know if his own claims about Gabriel’s price is true. Despite being the most successful agent in Brazil, Ribeiro is normally very calm with transfer situations, and doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to sell the player now.
