João Mário’s father has revealed that Sporting received and rejected an offer from Liverpool for the midfielder.
In an interview with Portuguese newspaper A Bola, João Mário Eduardo said he’s not forcing his son’s departure from the Portuguese club, but Sporting should at least start considering these bids.
“João had two concrete offers. One from Inter, which was 35 million plus 10 million for objectives. That would be 45 million euros. The club refused. Have I ever pressed the club to accept the bid? Did I make any noise? Never!
“And, after this refusal, I’ve been at the club twice. Then they received another bid, now from Liverpool, of 40 million euros, without objectives. The club refused again. Have someone seen me going to the club to say something that they were obligated to accept?”
If you can’t understand all this rage, we’ll explain it. João Mário still hasn’t shown up at Sporting’s pre-season training sessions, and his delay has been creating a big fuss in the Portuguese media.
Some believe he’s forcing a move out of the club, although he and his father claim that he had already let the club know that he would return from vacations a few days after his teammates.
Other players who got to the final of Euro 2016 are still on holiday, some, like Paul Pogba, not expected back this month.
João Mário’s father has always claimed that his son deserved better wages, and now insists on saying that his meetings with the board are only to negotiate this. However, his speech about offers suggest other things:
“Sporting already had two bids which, despite not reaching the release clause’s value, are of 35 plus 10 and 40 million euros! I’m not saying they had to be accepted, but they needed to be taken seriously. But they didn’t accept it…”
It’s obvious that he wants the move without creating public conflicts with the club board. João Mário has a €60m release clause and is seen as Sporting’s biggest chance of making some serious money, especially as the president Bruno de Carvalho wants to make a bigger sale than Renato Sanches’ transfer to Bayern Munich.
But his father knows the player doesn’t have all this market, and maybe this refusals could end up being some missed chances for the future of the 23-year-old’s career.
