Santos: 'Kaio Jorge, Soteldo and Verissimo talks'

By Football Italia staff

Santos President Jose Carlos Peres confirmed negotiations with Juventus for Kaio Jorge, Inter and Everton for Yeferson Soteldo and Torino for Lucas Verissimo.

The Brazilian club patron touched base on several transfer stories we could see this summer.

“Football may have stopped for the Coronavirus pandemic, but the transfer market is carrying on as normal,” said Peres in an exclusive interview with Calciomercato.com.

“It’s non secret that Kaio Jorge is sought-after, but if we don’t receive the offers I feel are suitable by a certain deadline, then we’ll keep him until the end of the season.

“Juventus asked about him, but made no formal offers. I told them his release clause is €75m, but we are open to negotiation. We were discussing closer to €30m, but not just with Juve.

“Another two Italian clubs are very active on him, along with a French side, but seeing as those stories didn’t reach the papers, I won’t name them.

“The clauses are there to protect ourselves from the economic aggression of the big European clubs. It forces those clubs to speak with us directly.”

Santos have other players who have caught the eye of European giants, such as Soteldo.

“I will confirm Inter asked me for Soteldo, specifically (director of sport Piero) Ausilio in person, but he stopped when I requested €35m.

“Soteldo is a young player with sensational skills, a player who can decide games. I’ve received requests from all the big clubs in Brazil, he is wanted by Premier League sides like Everton, as well as many offers from Spain.

“Despite the disappointment we had with Gabigol, we still wanted to give Ausilio and Inter preferential treatment. We were ready to sit down at the table and negotiate for €20-25m, but Ausilio never got back to us.

“As for Lucas Verissimo, the defender had practically been sold to Torino for €10m, a very low sum considering we wanted at least €12m. Then our coach begged us not to sell him, so we had to slow that deal down.

“Verissimo still has a lot of offers, but the problem is that despite his name, he doesn’t have Italian citizenship.

“Everton and Carlo Ancelotti also tried to take him on loan in January, but we were clear, he is only available on a permanent transfer.”

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