Santos president criticises Palmeiras for their handling of Gabriel Jesus

Modesto Roma Junior, president of Santos, has criticised - without mentioning - the Palmeiras hierarchy for wanting to sell star player Gabriel Jesus, who's a target of numerous clubs including Barça.

The 63 year-old was also critical about how other Brazilian clubs expose their players in the transfer market and to the pulling power of European leagues, advising Jesus to stay at least another year with his current club.

"I don't want our [best] players to go [abroad]," he began, "I want a better team while others want to sell [their players] and raise cash.

"Today, some talk about players as if they were the tenth wonder of the world - they must be advertising for a foreign sporting director to come to Brazil."

Roma also lamented the state of Brazilian football, with the national team recently exiting the Copa America 2016 at the group stages resulting in Dunga's sacking.

"Brazil is no longer the first country in the world for football," he concluded, "Maybe it was the only thing that we were the best in the world at, but now we are only the third best - just cheap labour supply.

"Maybe someday people will change that reality and we'll return to being the best."