Manchester United, PSG, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid are said to be the clubs who have a discount in Gabriel Jesus’ release clause if they want to take him from Palmeiras.
This information has never been confirmed by the club or the player’s agents, yet has been reported by several newspapers from Brazil and Europe.
From the clubs who have this preference, very few are moving to secure the player’s signing. On Monday, Catalan newspaper Sport says that Barcelona are working to buy the player this summer and they face strong competition from Juventus.
The Old Lady is indeed the club who’s been more linked to the player lately. According to claims from the Italian media, Juve would be working to pay his €20m release clause as soon as possible (the price for clubs out of that shortlist is €40m). This month, Bayern Munich have also scouted the player in two matches in the Brazilian league.
Sport says that Barça’s disadvantage is that the agent who’s been tasked with talking to the European clubs, the Italian Giovani Branchini, is not a very good friend of the Catalan club and could end up favouring other sides in this transfer.
The newspaper says the other interested sides are Real Madrid and Redbull Leizpzig, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid, implicating that Manchester United and PSG haven’t acted despite the contractual clauses.
As Palmeiras and Jesus’ agents are pretty confident that the player should leave for his release clause, a bid lower than that amount should certainly be turned down, which seems to have been the most likely case here.
We talked to one of Gabriel Jesus’ agents at the time, who denied any knowledge of an offer. Cristiano Simões, who owns part of the player’s economic rights, said Manchester United had never contacted them.
“As for the fact that Manchester United’s name was mentioned by Estado, I don’t have much to say. It’s no more than speculation. That’s how I understand it, since I was not officially contacted by the club or its representative.
“Well, United are a world football force. Everyone dreams of playing there, but the thing is not so simple. We need to analyse aspects regarding the adaptation to food, climate, language, social interaction, among others.”
The attacker’s economic rights are divided between his club Palmeiras (30%), his agent Cristiano Simões (32.5%), his former agent Fabio Caran (22.5%) and himself (15%).
The youngster was going to be called up for the Copa America to replace Santos’ striker Ricardo Oliveira after an injury, but couldn’t travel to the United States as he had no American Visa to enter the country. Despite Dunga’s anger over this, Jesus is still one of the biggest features in Brazil’s team for the Olympics in August.
