Sporting are ‘on alert’ over the future of Sebastian Coates, report A Bola on Saturday. On Friday the Portuguese newspaper had Sunderland owned Coates on their front page, saying Benfica, Sporting’s fierce rivals, were interested in highjacking a summer transfer.
Sunderland loaned Coates to Sporting in January 2016, and the Portuguese club have a right to buy the player for €5m. That must be paid before May 30th, and after then Sunderland can sell the defender to whoever they want, or David Moyes could choose to keep him.
For Sporting to complete the €5m switch, the player has to agree. This is where they’ve hit problems.
If Sporting had paid the money a few months into Coates loan and got everything sorted out then, it would have been much easier. But the club’s cocksure president Bruno De Carvalho decided to keep the money in the bank, confident the player was theirs.
He may still be, but Coates’ form for Sporting has brought admirers, and it’s now he and his representatives able to call the shots. There’s disagreement over wages, and Coates won’t agree to the €45m buyout clause which Sporting are trying to place on him, insisting he won’t have it over €25m.
There’s also disagreement about agent commission of around €150k.
This should have been much easier, and potentially cheaper, for Sporting than they’ve managed to make it for themselves.
Should Sporting lose the player to Benfica then it would rock the Leões, but Sunderland may be able to make some more money.
