Brighton and Hove Albion have ‘deployed their entire arsenal’ to sign Valentin Barco from Boca Juniors, and the player wants the move.
That’s according to Ole and TyC Sports, who both cover the situation around the player today after Brighton made their move yesterday.
Ole first explain that Brighton returned to the fray for Barco yesterday, offering around $9m for the player, $1m less than his release clause.
Rather than simply activating that clause and taking him instantly, they want to negotiate a deal with Boca Juniors for him instead.
The player’s entourage are saying this would be a deal worth $9m for 90% of the player’s rights, leaving 10% of those with the Argentine side. This would be paid in instalments, with $4.5m in February and the rest in February 2025.
Boca, though, are of a mind to reject this as it’s below the value of his release clause and they want to retain the defender anyway. Their plan was to offer him a new deal next week that would increase his release clause to $14m.
However, Brighton may take that opportunity away from them by simply paying his $10m clause and moving on to speaking to the player and his representatives.
All the parties are waiting for Barco to make his desires clear but according to TyC Sports, he’s already made the decision.
They report that the ‘the truth is that the player has decided to leave the club’ and so if Boca don’t accept the $9m offer, Brighton will simply activate his $10m release clause.
The Seagulls are aware of Boca’s plan to try and increase the player’s price tag and would be keen to avoid that happening so offered their current price as a sort of kind gesture to maintain a positive relationship with the Argentine side.
They’ve ‘already had a talk’ with the 19-year-old’s representatives to express their ‘firm interest’ in him and it was after that they made their formal offer to Boca in the hope of doing a deal that suits everyone.
They won’t wait to be outmanoeuvred, though, and will simply pay his clause if they need to in order to get this long gestating deal over the line.
