Barcelona's plan to sign Gabriel Jesus
Barcelona lead the chase for the signing of Gabriel Jesus, a rough diamond set to become a star, who at 19 is the sensation of the year in Brazil. After a first offer of 19 million euros, plus five million more in variables, Barça are preparing another offer. The club don’t want the forward to escape.
1. MEETING ABOUT SIGNINGS
The name Gabriel Jesus will be the focus of the key meeting the club will hold to plan the sporting side of things for 2016/17, which will take place this coming week at the club. In the meeting, they will work on strategies to strengthen the squad and look at the players available on the market.
President Josep Maria Bartomeu, director of professional sports Alber Soler, sporting director Robert Fernandez, director of football Raul Sanllehi - who was key in Neymar’s renewal - and manager Luis Enrique, via telephone, will all take part in the discussions.
2. FIRST, BARÇA
Andre Cury, the Catalan club’s man in South America, alerted Barça to Gabriel Jesus’ spectacular progression this spring. He’s a player who had been followed since before his professional debut. The presence of Raul Sanllehi in Brazil, to close the Neymar renewal, allowed the club a unique opportunity to make direct contact with the 19-year-old. As a result of that, the Palmeiras forward wants to play for Barça and will do his part to force any deal through.
3. MADRID, BLOCKED
As revealed by SPORT, Italian agent Giovanni Branchini, who represents Gabriel Jesus in Europe, arrived in Brazil this weekend with an offer from Real Madrid: 24 million euros to pay the release clause, a six million euro bonus for the player and five million for his agents, taking the total deal to 35 million euros. The wages on offer from Madrid are much superior to those on offer from Barça, too.
Barça, however, remain confident despite the move from Florentino Perez. As with Neymar in 2011, 2012 and 2013 when he was still in Brazil, the superior offers can be cancelled out by the player’s desire to move to Camp Nou. If Gabriel Jesus doesn’t change tack, he will be a Barça player. His opinion is the key factor.
4. NEGOTIATIONS
The player’s economic rights are divided, as is normal in Brazil. Normally, to simplify the talks and to avoid making the transfer more expensive, Barça won’t talk with all the parties, but with the person that owns the majority of the rights, which in this case if the player’s agent, Cristiano Simoes (32.5 per cent).
In the case of Gabriel Jesus, however, the Blaugrana have also opened talks with Palmeiras (who own 30 per cent of the rights). Raul Sanllehi, supported by Andre Cury, met with the club’s sporting director Alexandre Mattos to express Barça’s interest in the young forward.
In principle, Barça want to reduce the value of the deal, which is why they’ve not offered the 24 million euro release clause. Everything has an explanation: the player himself owns 15 per cent of his rights, so it’s possible to do a deal by promising him more money over the course of a five-year contract. The same could happen with his agent. If it gets too complicated, though, they’ll pay the clause.
5. OLYMPICS AND THE NEYMAR FACTOR
Gabriel Jesus’ calendar is in Barça’s favour and allows them to negotiate without urgency. The leading scorer in Brazil would not be able to do pre-season with Luis Enrique’s squad because he is part of the Brazil Olympic squad, along with Neymar and Rafinha.
He has never coincided with Neymar and the Olympics will allow both to spend time together, training and playing, for more than a month. The young forward has already decided the best destination for his future is Barça. The relationship he forges with Neymar in the coming months could further enforce that decision.
