Brazilian wonderkid Rodrygo continues to be linked to several European giants ,including Manchester City, even though no offer has come to Santos yet.
As the Catalan papers have been frequently reporting Barcelona’s chase for the youngster, this subject has even been mentioned in a press conference today, given by the Santos president José Carlos Peres.
But it turns out that Santos’ relationship with Barcelona isn’t any good. The club are currently taking legal action for an ilegal approach the Catalan side made for Neymar back in 2011.
“Rodrygo is the star. There are five or six top clubs in the world that wish to make a commitment to Santos and try to hold the player for the future”, said the president (via Lance). “Barcelona are one of those interested and we have not opened negotiations yet. Not allowed by FIFA. It’s out of the question.
“It all depends on numbers. He has a release clause today. Santos have already taken all the steps and I can guarantee that Rodrygo will not leave for free. Any kind of tapping up will be reported.”
“We have no scheduled meetings with Barcelona. We have a case at Fifa against Barcelona, who advanced money from a deal with Neymar months before the World Cup of Clubs final and that, in our view, is a tapping up. Neymar competed in the World Cup of Clubs already committed to another club. Everyone who watched that game saw that there was influence, Neymar’s head was turned. He was committed to the transaction.
“In addition, Barcelona need to pay us for a friendly of 4.5 million euros. There are two discussions with Barcelona today: first, Santos, and the 10 million euros that were given to Neymar and then the friendly. From the moment that Barça pay us, we will be ready to listen to any kind of proposal. We have pending issues and pending issues that need to be sorted. Then the relationship improves and we can sit down and discuss any kind of subject.”
When Peres speaks of all these clubs who are interested in the 17-year-old, he obviously doesn’t name any of them, but Lance does. They claim Manchester City would be interested in him, without giving any other details.
Besides City, Rodrygo has also been linked to the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool lately. He’s the kind of player we can only expect the rumours to grow about, and the story will only be gone when one of them pays the €50m release clause.
Now if any club want to negotiate directly with Santos, it seems they would have more of a chance than Barcelona.
