Tottenham run out of time to complete Damiao deal
Tottenham Hotspur again tried to sign Internacional striker Leandro Damiao on transfer deadline day, only to run out of time to negotiate a price with the Brazilian club and also wade through the complexities of the player’s ownership, the Daily Mail has reported.
Spurs are said to have offered £18m for the 23-year-old but Inter wanted an extra £2m and were not willing to compromise. The transfer could yet be resurrected in the summer, the newspaper adds.
Internacional director Marcelo Medeiros confirmed to Globo Esporte that the club had received an offer for Damiao, but not one that met their valuation. He said: “Leandro Damiao won't leave, the offer was below what we wanted.”
Any transfer for Damiao is complicated by the fact that his registration is not solely owned by Internacional. Around 30% of Damiao’s economic rights belong to third party investors, a form of ownership that contravenes English football’s rules, and the investors would have to agree to sell their stake in the player at the same time as the club for the transfer to go ahead.
The Mail adds that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy was aware of the difficulty of signing Damiao and would have preferred to wait until the summer but the club decided to act late on deadline day instead, only to be thwarted by the failure to agree a fee.
Tottenham had been linked with a striker for much of the window after Emmanuel Adebayor left the country to represent Togo at the Africa Cup of Nations and Jermain Defoe suffered a pelvic injury that threatened to rule him out of action. But the market closed with the White Hart Lane club signing only defender Zeki Fryers and midfielder Lewis Holtby.
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