Gabriel Jesus on his way to Manchester City
The future of Gabriel Jesus has been decided: in the coming days his transfer to Manchester City will be made official.
The player's agent, Cristiano Simoes, and Palmeiras have accepted the overwhelming offer of 32 million euros from the Premier League side, an amount much higher than the forward's market valuation of 20 million euros.
The footballer, who will sign for five years, wanted to go to Barça, but has been convinced to move to England. In the end, the financial criteria has won the battle over the sporting arguments.
As requested by the player himself, Manchester City will allow Gabriel Jesus to stay at Palmeiras until December, when the Brasileirao competition concludes.
Once the calendar year ends, Pep Guardiola will decide whether to bring the player into his squad, or allow him to continue in Brazil until the start of the season 2017/18.
The 32 million euros that the club owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed will pay, surpasses the wildest expectations that the Brazilian club or Simoes had in mind.
With his petrodollars, City have dealt a knockout blow to all their competitors in the race for the player's signature: Barça, Juventus, Bayern Munich and even the chequebook of Florentino Perez.
Manchester City were not in the group of five clubs (Barça, Real Madrid, Bayern, Manchester United, PSG) that had a reduced buy-out clause of 24 million euros for the player.
To avoid any surprises, Txiki Beguiristain and Ferran Soriano decided to throw everything at the deal, with a figure that approaches the 40 million euros buy-out clause for all other parties.
Palmeiras have got the deal they wanted. They will have their biggest star available to try to win the Brazilian league, which they have failed to do since 1996, and will also pocket 9.6 million euros (30% of the player's rights).
The rest of the fee will be divided between the player, who will receive eight million euros (for 25% of his own rights), and 7.2 million euros for each of his agents, Fabio Caran and Cristiano Simoes (who own 22.5% of the player's rights).
