After Tottenham’s interest in Lucas Alario was confirmed by River Plate, the Argentine press is now starting to get a few updates on the player’s situation as a move to London is looking like a real possibility from their perspective.
On Monday, the Santa Fe newspaper El Litoral has some interesting information about the negotiations, as the local club Atletico Colón hope of getting a few million in the transfer as they still own 40% of Alario’s economic rights.
They claim there’s a disagreement about the sale. As the River Plate board officially say “Alario is not transferable, there are no possibilities he’s going”, but the player’s agent publicly stated that “if a club comes and pay the 15 million dollar clause, Alario is gone from River”.
El Litoral says the club president Rodolfo D’Onofrio has admitted he has an agreement with the 23-year-old for him not to leave in this transfer window, admitting it would be impossible to keep him in the next market.
Tottenham are reportedly joining Liverpool, Inter Milan, Benfica and Ajax on the list of interested sides, but Spurs seem to be more ready to pay the release clause if recent reports are to be believed.
What would have likely killed the story was if Alario didn’t have access to an EU passport. Many South Americans have Italian, Spanish or Portuguese heritage, enabling them to get an EU passport and, for now at least, bypass work permit regulations.
After a little digging we found a 2014 report from El Litoral which stated he does have an EU passport.
