Despite Newton's green light to join São Paulo, Botafogo reject first bid | OneFootball

São Paulo’s negotiations to sign defensive midfielder Newton started badly, briefly gave the club’s directors some encouragement, and now have the warning lights flashing again.

As AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR has learned, the Rio club rejected the first approach made by the São Paulo side on Monday (1).

After making progress last week on a proposal to loan Newton with a mandatory purchase clause tied to performance targets (number of matches and the like), the Morumbi side then saw its attempt to haggle down Botafogo’s asking price for the deal go wrong.

Botafogo are insisting on releasing Newton only with a purchase clause set at 5 million euros (around R$29.4 million). São Paulo offered 3 million euros (approximately R$17.7 million).

Tricolor do not want to lose the deal for two reasons. First: Newton was a specific request from Dorival Júnior, who wants a tall player with strong marking ability. In addition, the player has signaled through his representatives that he is open to a move to Morumbi.

Because of this, the tendency is for São Paulo to increase their offer or propose paying the clause in installments, which would only start being paid from 2027 onward.

It is the same model through which Tricolor managed to sign Artur from Botafogo.

The midfielder played 17 matches for Botafogo this season and scored one goal. Under Martín Anselmi, he even played out of position in defense. Under Franclim Carvalho, however, he lost space and featured in only three matches, starting two of them.

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