It’s all gone down as a bit of a joke in Brazil, but it’s actually serious: Santos manager Dorival Junior wants the club to sign Bastian Schweinsteiger from Manchester United.
The claim was first published by UOL on Saturday, and they’ve talked to the manager and he confirmed the idea.
“It would be more of a call of attention to the world. My idea and the one I tried to pass to Santos’ board is that Santos would have a player with a world projection once again, and that we should look for names in European clubs that aren’t being used and have this profile. It’s the name who fits the profile.”
The article claims that Dorival Junior talked to players who’ve already played with the German star and confirmed that the dream is not impossible.
Santos fans started a campaign on social media, and that’s why most of Schweinsteiger’s recent pictures on Instagram are full of comments asking him to sign for the Brazilian club.
Dorival Junior was later asked about it during a press conference, and he confirmed he’s already talked to the club board about the matter. According to him, Schweinsteiger would be possible just as when Clarence Seedorf signed for Botafogo in 2012.
“I think that any Brazilian team… Like Botafogo, with Seedorf, a while back… For Botafogo it was very useful, the presence of a player of that level here in our country. I think it would be very important that it happened, at the very least an invitation, a placement, a demonstration that the club has an interest in one of these great athletes and it would change the context of the moment we are in.”
The truth is that Schweinsteiger’s wages are far from Santos’ reality. The Brazilian club currently have a salary cap of £47k per month, which we all know is much less than he currently makes a week.
Santos would count on advertising deals to pay for his salary, something that already worked during Neymar’s last years at the club, when they could afford an equivalent salary to what European clubs offered him.
But still, it would need a lot of convincing. The structure of Brazilian football is still much worse than Schweinsteiger would find in the MLS, and we doubt that even Santos’ spot in the Copa Libertadores for next year would have enough of an impact.
Jose Mourinho picked Bastian Schweinsteiger for Manchester United’s bench at the weekend which brings yet another twist to all of this.
