The row between Barcelona and Santos over the sale of Gabigol continues. As we reported on calciomercato.com yesterday, the Catalan giants had an option on the 19-year-old striker as part of the deal that took Neymar to the Camp Nou. The blaugrana agreed that they would be given three days to match any deal offered by another club and according to Barcelona’s lawyers; this agreement was not respected by the Brazilian club. Santos then produced a copy of the document dated 28 of August but because of international transfer deadlines, they asked Barca to give them a response within two days.  

Now the Catalan’s are stating that in order to have three days to decide whether to match Inter’s offer, they paid €3.2 million to Santos and have today commenced legal action against them stating that they did not keep to the original agreement. Club President Bartomeu explained that; “We have already sent a fax to Santos to advise that we are proceeding with our action, now we have to understand our position with FIFA and the Brazilian authorities”.
 

So does this threaten the future of Gabigol at Inter? The answer is no because the nerazzurri and the player’s contract were signed exclusively with Santos. The main issue for the Brazilians is whether they will have to repay the €3.2 back to Barcelona but this will have no bearing on the player’s move to Serie A.

Steve Mitchell @barafundler