As covered by Sport Witness on Monday, Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo had a big feature saying Barcelona scouted Porto midfielder Danilo during Portugal’s match against Andorra at the weekend.
The player has been attracting glances from big European clubs for a few years now, and this time, Mundo Deportivo claimed that Arsenal, Manchester City and PSG were the other pretenders for him.
There’s no need to say that the story made waves in Portugal, and today, the big local newspapers are all covering it, some with their own take.
O Jogo takes Arsenal out of that list, and claims that it’s Juventus, Manchester City and PSG who are currently after the midfielder.
They claim that Barcelona have made no offers so far, and didn’t even make a contact to know about the player’s price, so these other clubs wouldn’t be behind the Catalan side in the race for him.
And the price should be a big concern, because according to A Bola, Porto are not negotiating for Danilo, and he should only leave for his release clause, which is of €60m.
A Bola doesn’t even include the English clubs who would want him, and only mentions Barcelona and PSG. Maybe that’s because the Premier League sides, especially Arsenal, have been linked to Danilo for years and never made a bid. So this interest from other leagues is what they needed to make the story sound more fresh.
Although the €60m price sounded crazy some time ago, things are changing a lot in the transfer market. So when the next summer arrives, maybe with a good World Cup display from the midfielder, those figures won’t sound so high.
Manchester City have been doing background work, which further helps them hold off Barcelona and others.
