On Tuesday, Brazilian side São Paulo claimed they rejected a bid of €20m for their wonderkid Antony. The offer was revealed by executive manager Alexandre Pássaro.
“The window started nine days ago and there are 50 more ahead, but our aim is to hold the boys in,” he said (via UOL). “Proof of this is that we declined a proposal of more than €20m for Antony last week.”
Since Manchester City have recently been linked to the player, we even wondered if this could be their bid. And today, there’s the confirmation that it indeed came from the Premier League side.
UOL journalist Ricardo Perrone says City wanted to buy the player and send him to Sporting, where they would keep him on loan for at least one season.
The report claims the bid included another €5m in performance bonuses, but still, that was’t enough to convince São Paulo to sell.
The Brazilian side are under a bit of pressure to win titles, and some of their youngsters have left them without major glories. So they must keep Antony or the fans will turn against the board again.
The salary offer was said to be very good, but the player chose not to force a way out, as he believes that in case he keeps working, he will get even better opportunities in the future.
Just yesterday, we had covered claims from the Portuguese press saying Manchester City and Sporting had given up on this signing since Antony would cost over €30m. Let’s see if they were right.
