São Paulo stall on André Silva cover, focus on new signing | OneFootball

Casares and Belmonte during a Tricolor match (Abner Dourado4/Agif)

RAFAEL EMILIANO@rafaelemilianoo

The last transfer window of the year in Brazilian football ends on Tuesday (9/2) and the signs point to a more pessimistic São Paulo, not only in terms of bringing in reinforcements but also in regularizing those already signed.

This Friday (29), there will be five days left until the end of the new signings period, and the Morumbi club has not managed to make progress on its latest priority to strengthen the squad: a striker to fill the clear gap left by the absence of three of the four options for center forward (André Silva, Calleri, and Ryan Francisco, who, at first, will not play again this season).

After rejecting offers from agents and dreaming of Marcos Leonardo, Tricolor knocked on the door for two, let's say, alternative options. They failed with both.

The first is Marcelo Ryan. The 23-year-old striker, a Bahia youth product, currently plays for FC Tokyo on loan.

Although both his staff and the player himself were excited about São Paulo's interest, the Japanese club did not like it at all. They informed Sagan Tosu, who owns the player's rights, that they do not want to give up their top scorer at the decisive stage of the Japanese season.

To make matters worse, Sagan themselves were not impressed with São Paulo's initial proposal to take over the current loan. They demanded financial compensation to release Ryan before the end of his contract, which runs until December. In practice, he can already sign a pre-contract with whoever he wants. And, if São Paulo really wants him, they should sign him now for him to arrive in January.

The scenario is the same for Pedro Rocha. The experienced 30-year-old player, who came up through Juventus da Mooca but made his name at Grêmio and also played for Flamengo and Cruzeiro, is currently the top scorer in Serie B for Remo with ten goals. He has a contract until the end of the year, and the team from Pará has already stated that they will only authorize his departure upon compensation.

Given the situation, there are already those within Morumbi who admit that the window will close and the club will not sign any new attacking players.

Without him and two other options (Calleri and Ryan Francisco, who are also in Reffis), Hernán Crespio has, to field as a natural center forward, fellow countryman Dinneno, a name who arrived from Cruzeiro when the coach was still Luis Zubeldía, who, in fact, recommended him to Tricolor (a fact that may contribute to his limited use under the new manager).

Besides Dinneno, other players can be improvised, such as wingers Ferreirinha and Tapia, as well as Luciano, who can play as a false 9.

With a spending cap and budget limit, Tricolor is finding it difficult to go to the market for a name to strengthen its ranks. The option is for someone free on the market or who arrives on loan.

With no signing for the attack, the absolute priority is to register those already agreed upon, in this case the right-back Maílton, who arrived at the club at the end of last week and still has not been able to be registered.

Despite the agreement with the player and Metalist, who agreed to release the right-back in exchange for settling a debt of 620 thousand euros (about R$ 4 million), São Paulo needs the Ukrainians to resolve issues with FIFA. Or, for the football governing body to make an exception.

Metalist currently has three FIFA sanctions preventing them from registering new players. One from January, another from April, and another from May 2024. Since then, the club has not been able to sign anyone else. Nor receive back players who are on loan to other teams.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.