Zenit rejected Flamengo’s offer to transfer Claudinho for €15 million

St. Petersburg football club “Zenith” has rejected the offer of the Brazilian “Flamengo” on the transfer of midfielder team Claudinho. Flamengo was ready to pay €15 million for the transfer of the player, but the management of Zenit refused, saying that the player was “not for sale.” The newspaper reports O Dia.

According to the publication, the Flamengo management is considering a visit to Russia to discuss the player’s transfer “face to face”. According to sources close to Claudinho, the player “always talks about his desire to sign a contract with Flamengo”.

The Brazilian club also announced its intention to sign a contract with Wendel, a Brazilian footballer from Zenit. However, Flamengo is in no hurry to make a decision on this issue, since Wendel “will directly intervene in negotiations with the Russians about Claudinho”, which is a priority for the club’s directors.

Claudinho has been playing for Zenit since 2021, his current contract expires in June 2027. The transfer amount then amounted to €12 million. On February 24, 2023, Claudinho and Malcolm, a Zenit striker of Brazilian origin, received Russian citizenship. In September 2021, Claudinho and Malcolm received a call-up to the national team for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, but even before the start of the first game, the club withdrew the players from the national team. On July 12, 2023, the former national team coordinator Juninho Paulista said that in 2021 the management of Zenit withdrew the players from the national team for the match in the Champions League with “inhuman threats to break contracts.”

Polina Motyzlevskaya