Last night, when it already seemed pretty unlikely that Everton would manage to sign Luis Diaz from Porto, it was reported by the Portuguese media that the Dragons decided only to let the player leave in case his release clause was triggered.
This attitude is now detailed by newspaper Record, who claims it actually happened last week.
According to the newspaper, there was a meeting between Porto president Pinto da Costa, Luis Diaz himself and his agent Carlos Van Strahalen. There it was decided that any club who’d try to sign the striker would need to pay €80m.
It’s said that Everton were told about that at the weekend. Still, there was a possibility ‘in the air’ that the Toffees could still come for Diaz in case Richarlison left Goodison Park for Paris Saint Germain.
It was still not believed Everton would put the €80m on the table, and that’s the reason why Diaz had ‘his head clear’ when travelling to South America to join Colombia for the upcoming international games.
And even though several stories claimed the Toffees were trying to include James Rodriguez in the deal, Record doesn’t even mention the former Real Madrid player in their story.
