He’s 27 and has 3 more years with Sevilla. He rejected offers from Saudi Arabia as Al Qadsiyah were prepared to offer 45 million (trigger his release clause) for us and 25 million Euros for 3 seasons for him.
Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli were also interested, along with Juventus, Barca and Atletico.
However, he still chose to stay here - even though we’re rebuilding and the future, starting from this season’s objectives, are a mystery.
Very intriguing to know the psychology behind this. Sure, he likes the city, the teammates and everything, and it could do a lot with his family - but there must be something else that’s keeping him in a club that fiercely battled relegation last season and is not even playing in Europe this season.
Him being the best player in the team could also contribute to the decision. From a simple point of view, he’s chosing the less money but the Sevilla unknown vs. a heck lot more money with the Arabic or other top European clubs unknown.
It’s not that anything is known in football and life in overall.. so this adds to the intrigue of the case.
The phenomenon of wanting to stay with Sevilla only seems to have started once we started to struggle. Because as far as I know we never had problems selling players. We all knew the stars of the season would be gone by season’s end, maybe if se were lucky they would stay one more year. And those were the good times of European football and sub-top finishes.
Now the board is showing to be dysfunctional, another manager every few months, battling relegation, financial problems - and all of these sudden the guys want to stay…? I guess Seville is a nice city to live, but that’s not any more of a factor than it was 10 years ago… Right?
My guess (at least in the Al Qadsiyah case). Partly there’s the world cup and partly it’s because, unless you come from a background in that culture and religion, Saudi is a very unappealing place to live and raise a family. This is also why, despite many lesser English clubs being able to pay more than their La Liga equivalents, many La Liga players choose to stay put. Living in Seville or Sunderland? A bit of a no brainer.
The most logical part so far is the WC 2026 as Edi mentioned. That should be the strongest factor in football terms, but the city of course plays a huge role.
Dodi might also reason that he can play in Saudi after 2-3 seasons or so… but 1 injury and that time never comes. Same with other top clubs that are interested in him.
He’ll be 28 very soon… not 20-23 anymore.
I just hope we can still get a lot of $ from him should he decide to move in the future. Or… stay for the remainder of the contract if all goes well and we get in a great momentum.
Europe next season would be massive for the club… and as much as pessimistic as I am above the situation in overall, I think it can be achievable with a couple of good moves from Cordon and a bit of luck.
Europe seems to big of a jump. We were 1 point off relegation last season. We have injuries to start this season, only signed 1 player and not sold anyone yet.
We are going into Athletic club game with the same squad as last season and still the same issues.
Cordon is doing his best and might improve us a bit but in 3 weeks left of window he not suddenly going to transform us from 17th to a top 6/7 side.
I feel the best we can hope for is mid table and to stabilise. I just want us clear of relegation zone as we still a club in chaos with unstable/incompetent board, no money, struggling to hit salary cap, can’t get rid of deadwood, still struggling to sell the best players to get most money, can’t register all players, injuries and a squad still weak in few areas.
Cordon and the new manager offer hope but considering the last few years being dire we can’t expect a miraculous recovery in 1 summer window.
I just hoping for a season free of stress not fearing going down.
We have done it before with Monchi at the helm when he returned. We also spent over 100 million that transfer window…
It looks like the Bade to Leverkusen is almost a done deal and will add significant funds, as it is rumored from 25 million up to 35 million. I do worry about replacing him, though. He was by far and away our best defender, if not overall player, and it is going to unsettle an already unsettled defensive core.
The first offer has been rejected for Bade. They offered 25 million euros. Sevilla and Cordon want closer to 35 million euros. Let’s see what happens.
If we get good money for these sales then good. However, the transfer window hasn’t got long left and most of the best players won’t be available in the last week. It a risky strategy leaving things this late and holding out for more money. Considering our financial situation, wanting to sign new players and register players but let’s see if Cordon pulls it off.
We sell Bade and Juanly and we’re golden financially.
However, what about the replacements?
If we get Pablo Maffeo that would be great. But if the rumors are true and Carmona will be used as a bargaining chip (instead of Rafa Mir), then we’re still left with only 1 RB?
2nd… who replaces Bade? Canteras?
Are we going to be doomed with Gudelj as an undisputed starter and a captain again? Kike ‘the gambler’ Salas who could be incarcerated any time and Marcao who could be injured frequently… this is the defense we’re left with?
Nianzou… ffs!
If we don’t get a solid CB as a replacement we’re toast for the season.
We best hope they want to spend it on good players for the good of the club and not just trouser the money for themselves. I’m talking the board of directors here not Cordon.
If we get close to 40 million that great as long as it used for the good of the football club. It shows how much I trust those who are in charge now! lol
@Edinho I want to believe you when you said we are a Sevilla FC and we always bounce back. That is usually true but the dark evil cloud that be over the club for a few years won’t be easy to shift. Let’s hope we a survive this dark period and find the light soon.
Bizarre to hear Valencia cited as an example to follow. It’s true we’ve had a better window than usual, but it’s such a low bar to jump over. Previous Valencia windows involved selling best players, being linked with lots of players who instead joined you, Villarreal, rhymes-with-lettuce, or Sociedad and bringing in cheap low quality last minute loans (hi, Rafa Mir.) Sadly, this year you seem to be following the example of our previous windows. We’ve been able to have a better window simply because of ruthless cost cutting in previous years which has produced better FFP margins but at the expense of giving away good players, meaning a worse squad and the top of our ambition this season is maybe scraping into the last European places (Conference League.) I read the Hastalamuerte thread on this and they’re right that La Liga is fundamentally a poor and broken product with the top 3 now too far ahead of everyone else and the rest of the teams reduced to poverty: constantly selling talent and hunting for cheap replacements. Their attempted solutions to improve things (Supercopa in Saudi / La Liga game, inevitably involving Real Madrid or Barcelona, abroad) just end up widening the gap further.