Valentin Barco’s exit to Brighton & Hove Albion clearly left a bad atmosphere at Boca Juniors, as the club didn’t like to see him triggering his release clause.
No one at the Buenos Aires side had commented on this transfer until last night, when board member Raul Cascini was interviewed by ESPN.
Quoted by newspaper Olé, the club official made it clear they’re not happy to see Barco leaving them this way, and didn’t even give Brighton a mention.
“About Valentin is clear and everyone knows it. We wanted to renew him at the time for four years. He and his agent didn’t want to, they signed for one year only on the condition of the clause, which everyone knows. But they also have to know that the clause is executed by the player. This was clearly done and signed by the player. We have no choice but to do what happened, that he signed it. We are happy, he is the only player who left and we are happy with the squad we have.”
What seems clear is that Boca Juniors are mad at Barco, and not at Brighton, so the Seagulls can probably keep their cordial relationship with the Argentine club.
Roberto De Zerbi’s side had previously made an offer for the signing, but that was turned down by the Xeneize, and that’s when they and Barco decided to use the release clause.
“As soon as we started training we wanted to renew his contract, we sat down with him and his agent and they told us that they’d get back to us in two days and they came with the signing of the clause. That’s how it went. We didn’t lie, we went the right way. We offered him four years. We wanted Valentín to keep growing in our club, we wanted him to keep learning. But well, you have to be thankful sometimes in life, but things happened the way they happened.”
It now seems a matter of time until Brighton announce Barco’s arrival at the club. He’s not the first Argentine arriving from Boca Juniors, as when signing Alexis Mac Allister from Argentinos Juniors back in 2019, the Seagulls also let him have a loan at the Buenos Aires club while he got his work permit.
