Just yesterday, we covered an interview from Sebastian Coates saying he and his family would like him to stay at Sporting CP. The player arrived in Portugal after a loan from Sunderland a year ago and seems pretty happy there.
But today’s breaking story from A Bola says that this situation may change a bit. The defender is having a hard time negotiating his new salary at the club, and their Lisbon rivals Benfica are keeping an eye on the issue.
According to the newspaper, Coates currently makes €2.8m gross per year paid by Sunderland, which means €1.4m free of taxes. And Sporting, being Sporting, want to pay him less than that.
Another disagreement is that Sporting want the player to have a big release clause, as they normally do with most of their squad, but Coates doesn’t accept a bigger figure than €25m.
Even though Sporting are said to be handling the situation calmly, they only have until the end of May to activate their buying option and sign him permanently from Sunderland for €5m.
On the other hand, A Bola claim Sunderland are well aware they can make more money with this situation. Coates has been doing very well in Portugal and should be worth much more than €5m in the case he’s free to negotiate for other clubs.
Sides such as AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund have been linked to him in the past, but for now, Benfica seem to be Sporting’s biggest threat.
It would be hugely controversial if Coates moved from Sunderland to Benfica permanently, instead of to Sporting, but that doesn’t rule it out.
