L’Équipe report that Uruguayan defensive midfielder Manuel Ugarte is seeking to join PSG this summer, but that his current club, Sporting Portugal, are seeking to push him in the direction of Chelsea.
The 22-year-old has a €60m release clause, which PSG last week accepted to pay and found a provisional agreement over personal terms with the player. Chelsea’s arrival in the race has served to shake things up.
On top of the €60m release clause, Chelsea are offering to take on additional costs linked to the deal and sort out youth academy solidarity payment fees, owed to Uruguayan club Fénix. But on top of all that, Chelsea are speaking to Sporting Portugal, at the same time as negotiating the Ugarte deal, about making a minority investment into the Portuguese club, in a truly extraordinary situation. The investment into Sporting Portugal would made through Clearlake Capital, according to sources contacted by Get French Football News.
If Chelsea are successful in achieving the Ugarte deal in this way, L’Équipe suggest that UEFA and local regulators in Portugal would be forced to investigate the deal. Sporting Portugal is already under investigation in the nationwide probe into corruption and money laundering in Portuguese football.
Chelsea have offered Ugarte an 8-year contract. On this practice of signing players to unusually long contracts, a move made by Chelsea across their free spending since the arrival of Clearlake Capital as majority owners last summer in an attempt to diminish the impact of amortisation of contracts on Financial Fair Play calculations, UEFA are closely examining the possibility of creating new regulations to curb this practice.
GFFN | James Thorpe
