Manchester City are reportedly continuing the chase for São Paulo defender Éder Militão.
According to Brazilian outlet UOL today, the Premier League champions have been in recent contact with the player’s staff.
With Militão’s contract expiring in January, he’s available to sign a pre-contract with any club from July. Manchester City would be ready to spend €10m in signing-on bonuses, as that would help to beat the competition from the likes of Inter Milan and Porto.
All this money would go to the player and his agents, and São Paulo would get nothing. UOL claims that the club hasn’t even been contacted by Pep Guardiola’s side so far
São Paulo are obviously unhappy with the situation, and are trying to get a bit of money from the transfer. The first option is to extend the player’s contract before selling him, but he doesn’t seem keen on accepting.
It’s explained that because Manchester City have been in contact with his agents while he still has a contract, São Paulo could even report the English side to FIFA for an illegal approach.
UOL claims that Militão’s salary is the worst among São Paulo’s starters, as he currently makes R$12k (£2.3k) a month at the club. His deal is still from the time he was an academy player.
Manchester City’s chase is now making more sense. When the first reports came out, we pointed out that paying São Paulo £20m for the transfer was way too much. Then we had the chance to report that the Brazilian club hadn’t been contacted by Manchester City yet.
In both cases, apparently we were right.
