Newcastle United make €35m offer for Vasco’s midfielder Andrey Santos

Tébaro Schmidt from Globo has made public an offer made by Newcastle United to Vasco da Gama for 18-year-old midfielder Andrey Santos, the journalist reported on Tuesday.

According to the Brazil outlet, Newcastle is willing to pay up to €35 million to land the up-and-coming promise after the youngster inked a new deal with Vasco last Monday linking him to the Brazilian organization until 2027.

Although those reports might seem inconsistent and conflicting, the truth is that Santos and Vasco could have worked their deal in advance of Newcastle—or any other European powerhouse—approaching the club with an offer for the player, thus gaining leverage in negotiations and having a way to extract the most from a potential transfer. As they say, the devil is in the details, and the devil in Santos’ deal is “a termination penalty for clubs abroad [of] €50 million“. That’s some dough, folks. And if Newcastle wants to land the Brazilian they will have to pony up a vast amount of money.

It is of major importance to notice that Santos is playing for Vasco in Brazil’s second tier this season. Santos, it’s been reported, is keen to move to a European side from a major league in the continent with Newcastle seemingly appealing to the youngster.

Santos is only playing his first season of professionnal football, though, as he got promoted to Vasco’s first team this campaign.

Globo’s report includes detailed information about Newcastle’s offer, which has seemingly been passed on to Vasco by way of Giuliano Bertolucci. Bertolucci, a Brazilian player agent, has quite a packed list of clients including Marquinhos, Diego Carlos, and most interestingly for the Magpies, Bruno Guimaraes. The list is endless, but the presence of Bruno among his clients and the fact that the Brazilian arrived on Tyneside and proceeded to hit the ground running immediately could definitely appeal to the young Santos if an offer is officially presented to him and Vasco.

A classic Brazil giant, Vasco hasn’t had a player leave the club for more than €20m throughout their history, with the likes of Santos and Sao Paulo getting the largest sums of money from selling the likes of Neymar and Lucas Moura just to name a few players joining European sides in the last decade.

Andrey Santos could very well be the one man to change that trend. Santos, just 18 years of age, has already attracted the attention of bigger clubs around the world in recent months. National side Flamengo has already made contact with Vasco, per reports by Globo.