“Futebol de Gaúcha” became a really popular radio station among Liverpool fans on Sunday. Since it was claimed that Liverpool submitted an official €35m bid for the Grêmio attacker Luan, the buzz about it has been pretty big.
First of all, the station is called Rádio Gaúcha, as Futebol da Gaúcha is just what they call their sports show.
The claims were made by Pedro Ernesto, a well known southern Brazil journalist who often says that players are leaving. He had already revealed bids for Luan, and after he reported this one on the radio, their official twitter account posted it as well.
#Grêmio tem em mãos uma proposta oficial do Liverpool de 35 milhões de euros por Luan. 💰💰💰 #Languiru
— Futebol da Gaúcha (@FuteboldaGaucha) 28 de agosto de 2016
Of course this was soon seen and shared by Liverpool fans.
Earlier on Sunday, Grêmio president Romildo Bolzan had given an interview to the very same Rádio Gaúcha.
These are a few of his claims: “There was nothing about Luan. Really nothing. But I want to admit here that there are so many talks that I think that outside of Grêmio there’s something. But to Grêmio, who are the definer of the business, who will decide if the player leaves, if we accept the price of transaction, who own 70% of his economic rights, to Grêmio absolutely nothing has arrived.”
“We’ve already announced it, so everyone who negotiates with us will know. We accept to negotiate for the price that Grêmio want, and especially that he stays until the end of the year.”
The only thing that caught our attention in the interview was that Bolzan was being asked about negotiations conditions, and mentioned the Premier League out of nothing.
The reporter made a question about Grêmio’s demands, and the president said: “Gabriel Jesus was bought by Manchester City, but Gabriel Jesus is in the situation that he fulfils the requirements of the English federation.
“This is the most important matter there is. If he fulfils the requirements to be a player bought to play in the English league.”
Again, the Premier League was never mentioned by the reporters, who were only talking about bids. The president’s knowledge about the FA work permit rules was something he chose to share.
Rádio Gaúcha weren’t the only ones who interviewed the president on Sunday. Rádio Grenal did so too, asked the same thing and got the same answer: “There’s absolutely nothing. We didn’t have an approach, we didn’t have a bid, we didn’t have an evaluation. If it arrived to third parties, by another way, it’s a subject which was left there. To Grêmio, officially, nothing has arrived.”
Grêmio have been denying receiving bids for a while. Speaking to us a week ago, sporting director Antonio Dutra also said they had nothing official on the table.
Rádio Gaúcha’s claims didn’t make much noise in Brazil. Radio stations aren’t considered hugely reliable in Brazil, and they didn’t even bother to put an article online about the bid. Other outlets haven’t given attention to it either.
Did Pedro Ernesto have a word with Grêmio’s president during his afternoon at the Rádio Gaúcha, resulting in Liverpool interest being revealed? Maybe. But we find it very unlikely.
