On Monday night, The Sun published an article saying Manchester United are close to agreeing a £30m move for Santos starlet Gabriel Barbosa.
They claim that by offering that, the Red Devils are leaving Leicester City behind in the race for the youngster and are now seen in pole position for the striker. The deal could be sealed in 48 hours.
To make it absolutely clear, this is what was claimed: ‘However SunSport can reveal Jose Mourinho is now in pole position to land the Samba superkid, with United set to push through a whopping £30million deal within the next 48 hours to outmuscle the reigning champions.’
There’s a few pieces of information which make this surprising deal very unlikely.
First, because Gabigol has made it very clear that he will only decide his destiny after the Olympics. His schedule for the next two days shows he has a semifinal to play, so it would really not be the moment for a transfer.
Second, because the Brazilian press have said nothing about it. The local papers were those which broke the news about Juventus, Chelsea, Inter and Leicester City’s interest, but haven’t said a word about Manchester United.
Third, because they say United agreed to pay Santos £26m and another £4m to his agent. It doesn’t matter how much Gabigol’s new club will pay, Santos will only get €18m due to the release clause.
The rest of the money is going to the player, with part of it being paid to the third-party company Doyen. Santos are definitely not getting that amount.
UOL has an article today saying Gabigol isn’t too excited about potentially joining Inter, since he called the Brazilian defender Miranda and found out the club aren’t living their best moment.
They claim that the auction stands as it was last week: Leicester (€27m), Inter (€25m) and Juventus (€20m).
Maybe the Sun are right, and Gabigol will become a Manchester United player before the weekend. But we aren’t jumping on this story so early.
