Burnley and Santos fans were both caught by surprise on Sunday afternoon, when a rumour about the transfer of Arthur Gomes started popping up on social media.
Since the move hasn’t been reported on by big outlets yet, we went after the claims that have been out so far and will try to explain how this story grew in the past hours.
It starts with the fact that Arthur Gomes was on loan at Atlético-GO, and on Saturday, it was confirmed that he’d leave the club because Santos received an offer from abroad for him and accepted it.
The club signing him was not revealed. So on Sunday morning, Facebook pages started claiming it’s Burnley who are paying €2.5m for his transfer.
Those fan pages have been crediting Gazeta Esportiva, a reliable outlet in Brazil, who actually never reported the move.
However, a couple of other reports make the story more credible.
One of them came from Andre Oostgaard, a Norwegian Santos fan who’s been in Brazil and made many contacts within the club. On Twitter, he claimed that the move is happening and wished the player good luck.
His followers started noticing that Arthur Gomes follows Burnley on Instagram, and with the Clarets not being a very popular club in Brazil, that could be a clear sign of the transfer. He apparently unfollowed the club later.
The press continued not to have anything until Sunday night, when O Popular, a local Goiás outlet, talked about the move as well. In a story about Atlético’s weekend, they had a paragraph claiming Arthur Gomes had his loan cut short and is moving to Burnley for €2.5m.
Attention should be paid to the work permit issue, since the winger would hardly fit the FA rules. Now either way, Burnley fans are better waiting until reliable outlets in Brazil report something on it. Since the player returned to Santos to be sold, it shouldn’t take long until more details on his future come out.
