Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Barcelona has reached an agreement on the transfer of Villareal central defender and Uruguayan international Martín Cáceres (21). The deal could be announced today.
Barcelona's first offer of 15 million euro° was last week rejected (read more here). Villareal held on to the buyout clause of 20 million euro°, an amount the club has to share with Uruguayan club Defensor Sporting de Montevideo, the former club who still holds 50% of the rights of the player (note: some sources are still claiming that it's actually his agent who holds that other half).
Barcelona refused to pay the buyout fee and was considering other options like paying a part of the sum in variables or convincing Defensor to accept a lower fee. Villareal bought half of Cacerés' transfer rights last summer, paying between 1,5 and 2 million euro°. Catalan sports paper Sport claims that the final fee would be 17 million euro° plus 3 million euro° variables.
Villareal seems to assume for a while now that Cáceres will leave this summer and is already looking to replace him. Madrid sports tabloid Marca claimed last week that the club had contacted the agent of French defender Pascal Cygan, whose contract with Villareal expires this month and who had been told he could leave, to ask the player to postpone a decision on his future for ten days. If Cáceres leaves, Villareal in the end could offer Cygan a renewal.
Villareal chief executive José Manuel Llaneza told journalists yesterday that a deal on Cáceres was very close: "Every day that goes by, the situation is moving in the right direction and that makes one think that an agreement should be near, although I cannot yet confirm that we have a final deal."
Cáceres meanwhile didn't stop giving interviews (Spanish television station La Sexta, Spanish local television station Canal Nou, Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo twice, Madrid sports tabloid Marca, Catalan radio station COM Ràdio) basically repeating the same: he wouldn't mind staying in Villareal, but Barcelona is a great club which he couldn't say 'no' to and he hoped there would be an agreement soon.
In an interview with Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo, Cáceres, who is believed to have a personal agreement with Barcelona on a four-year contract earning 2 million euro plus incentives a year (read more here), said that he was close to joining Real Madrid two weeks ago: "Madrid wanted me and everything seemed to be agreed upon. I don't know why it didn't went through in the end."
After he spend days waiting at his house in Huelva, Cáceres yesterday flew off to Ururguay to join the national team. Daniel Fonseca, his agent, had asked the player to postpone the start of his holidays because a deal seemed close. And if an agreement on the transfer would be found, Cáceres could then immediately travel to Barcelona to undergo the medical tests and to sign the contract.
Read more:
Villareal rejects offer for Caceres
Deal with Caceres
How things stand: Central defenders
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
Deal on Caceres
Adebayor wants to stay with Arsenal
Asked about the rumours linking him with a summer move, Arsenal forward and Togo international Emmanuel Adebayor (24), one of the main candidates to fill Barcelona's centre forward position next season (read more here), said in an interview with British tabloid The Sun that he plans to stay at Arsenal next season:
Giovani's transfer fee in free fall
On Sunday it was 8+3, yesterday it was 7+4 and now it suddenly is 6+5: the transfer fee Tottenham will pay for Barcelona right wing attacker and Mexican international Giovani dos Santos (19) seems to be in an unstoppable downward spiral.
Catalan sports papers El Mundo Deportivo and Sport both claim today that Barcelona will receive a fixed fee of 6 million euro° for Giovani, with the possibility to pick up another 5 million euro° depending on the performances of the player during his stay in Tottenham.
Read more:
Deal on Giovani
Zambrotta and Giovani transfer fees
Favourite Tottenham might have landed Giovani
Looking for a new Larsson
Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that, although this is not a priority, Barcelona is searching the market for an experienced and cheap back-up goalscorer, a new Larsson so to say.
The first option would be Inter Milan forward Julio Ricardo Cruz (33), who has been followed by the Barcelona technical staff for years and could leave the Italian champions after the appointment of José Mourinho as new Inter manager.
AC Milan forward Filippo Inzaghi (34) would be the second name on the list, with Juventus forward David Trezeguet (30) and Mallorca forward and Spanish international Dani Güiza (27) also being possible candidates to fill that role.
pep's opinion:
last year i said they should bring in a veteran goalscorer as back-up for eto'o. back then i had three names: cruz, inzaghi and klose. with a new guy (or eto'o) + henry + bojan, I don't really think this is a priority anymore.
Read more:
How things stand: Centre forward
Trezeguet is still an option
Barcelona has first option on Guiza
Chivu unlikely but not impossible
Asked about the rumours linking the player with Barcelona (read more here), Ioan Becali, the agent of Inter Milan central defender and Romanian international Cristian Chivu (27) , did not rule out a move in an interview with Italian radio station Teleradiostereo:
Read more:
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