Santos confirm that Roma will be given the opportunity to swoop for striker Marcos Leonardo in the January transfer window. ‘He understood it was a delicate moment and agreed to wait.’
The agreement had been reached between the two clubs for circa €18m including various add-ons, but a change of circumstances prompted Santos to pull the plug.
The reason was that the Brazilians were struggling towards the foot of the table domestically and had already sold Deivid Washington to Chelsea.
With fans protesting, they could not let Marcos Leonardo leave as well, so pulled him off the market.
“Santos have sold all their protagonists in recent years, “confessed director general Alexandre Gallo in a press conference.
“Marcos Leonardo understood it was a delicate moment and agreed to wait. We increased his salary and set up some rules allowing him to leave in the next transfer window, assuming of course that the offer is interesting for Santos.
“We thank the player and his entourage for their understanding.”
It remains to be seen if Roma will go in for Marcos Leonardo, considering they have since plugged the gaps with Sardar Azmoun and Romelu Lukaku, on loan from Bayer Leverkusen and Chelsea respectively.
Marcos Leonardo remains a key figure for Santos after scoring 16 goals and providing four assists in 34 competitive games this season.
Roma sending the begging bowl round again ! Only in football could a broke business with no money buy multi million euro employees!