On Thursday we were able to exclusively reveal that Chelsea’s bid for Gabigol was still on the table, despite all the fuss caused by Juventus’ recent offer for the 19-year-old.
As UOL reported, it was believed that Chelsea had bid €30m for the transfer, and Juve offered €20m for Santos’ 40% share of the player’s economic rights.
For Santos, Juventus’ bid seemed better, since the Chelsea fee would still needed to be shared with the player’s dad, who owns 40% of his rights, and with Doyen Sports, who own the other 20%.
However, ESPN disagrees. They say that Juve’s offer was for the entire transfer, so Santos would be turning it down as the Brazilian club want this amount for their share only. That would leave Chelsea with the highest bid.
ESPN says that Juve have offered Gabigol a salary of €250k per month, which is triple what Santos have shown they can pay in the case he signs a new contract. The Italian side would also be considering to raise the bid to €25m, but nothing more than that.
The report says that the problem for Chelsea, just like it was for Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund, Fiorentina and Hebei Fortune, is that the bid was brought by a group of agents who demand a commission of 10% of the deal, which Santos don’t accept to pay.
There’s also further claims from Fábio Sormani, from Fox Sports, who says he’s contacted another agent, Wagner Ribeiro. The journalist didn’t believe in UOL’s article and asked the agent if it was true. He says the conversation went like this:
“Wagner, is it true what they’re talking about?
“No.”
“Was there an offer?”
“There wasn’t.”
“But where there conversations?”
“Yes.”
“Can you close it?”
“I’m travelling to Europe next week”.
With so many Brazilian outlets mentioning Juventus’ bid, it’s a little hard to believe that Ribeiro was telling Sormani the truth. The journalist also didn’t mention Chelsea on the show or in the talk, so he assumed that this trip to Europe is only to negotiate with Juventus.
But our claims stand. The Blues’ offer is still on and it will be discussed in the next few days. After all, this 10% commission can still be discussed.
