The new president of Corinthians is furious with his predecessor, as he believes that the Gabriel Moscardo deal has been poorly handled.
Paris Saint-Germain is set to soon sign São Paulo defender Lucas Beraldo (for a fee of €20 million + €5 million) and Corinthians defensive midfielder Gabriel Moscardo, with a transfer fee of €22 million plus €3 million in bonuses.
This deal has put the new Corinthians president, Augusto Melo, who replaced Dulio Monteiro, in a difficult position. He wasn’t keen on seeing Moscardo leave. However, the contract couldn’t hold him back: “This player has a contract. All the other players had their salaries increased, as well as their release clauses. Why didn’t they do the same with this player? When the current president called me to discuss this matter, I told him I was against his departure. I don’t want to sell him. The kid had three, four good months. I even talked to the player. I told him, ‘I am against your transfer, you still have a lot to offer Corinthians, you need to mature, give us titles. You can go to the Olympics, go to the A Selection.’ That being said, we could have sold him for €40 million, €45 million. I stayed in this position of not wanting to sell him. There was another conversation, I again said no to an offer of €20 million, except that we (the future management team, editor’s note) were not aware of the release clause. Unfortunately, the fact is that today the amount of the release clause is lower than what is being offered to us. So if we don’t accept, the kid will leave for a lower price. It won’t happen again in 2024; we will be very vigilant about contracts,” he revealed.
“When you understand football, when you see the player’s first half of the season and you see the coach promoting him to the first team, these changes should have been made. It would have cost nothing, and we would have been in a more comfortable situation. Now, European clubs can come, pay the clause, and it’s over. When they came to talk to us about accepting this transfer, the offer was €20 million. From the moment I said no, it went up to €22 million. My refusal helped get a better price because otherwise, he would have left for €20 million. But there is clearly harm due to this lower clause.”
A good deal for PSG, but on the Corinthians’ side, they are very, very upset…