Even though the Portuguese and the Italian press seemed very confident that the Sporting goalkeeper Rui Patrício was moving to Napoli this summer, there are a couple of reports today that may change the direction where these rumours are going.
One of them comes from Diário de Notícias. The newspaper says Wolverhampton Wanderers are keen on the goalkeeper, and are wondering about offering £30m for him.
The report claims that a bid like this would favour the Championship side, because Napoli don’t want to go over €20m, and can hardly reach €30m, which leaves the Wolves in clear advantage.
Wolves’ offer is converted to Euros, with the paper saying it would be €34m. Even though Sporting are demanding at least €35m for the transfer, that could be easily reached with performance bonuses.
Diário de Notícias claims that it’s Jorge Mendes who’s taking care of the negotiations. Besides working on Fosun’s side, he’s previously been Patrício’s agent.Now Jorge Mendes could have a pretty important role in this case, and you can see that if you take a look at Correio da Manhã’s story about the goalkeeper today.
They claim there’s been a dispute between the agent and Sporting for the percentage they own on Patrício. That would be one of the reasons why the deal with Napoli isn’t done yet.
The other issue delaying the deal is the Serie A side offering only €17m, which can go up to €22m, an amount which is much below what Sporting are demanding.
So all these claims make things look favourable to Wolverhampton. Not only the biggest bid, but also the fact that Mendes wants a percentage of Patrício. Because in case the agent can tie up a deal with Fosun, which it seems like he always does, he can probably get the millions he wants and help the club to sign the goalkeeper.
