São Paulo chase ex-defender rejected in December, seek reinforcements | OneFootball

São Paulo has made significant progress and is expected to announce in the coming days the signing of center-back Matheus Dória, 31 years old. For those who remember, the player was with the club in 2015 on loan from Olympique de Marseille, France, scoring two goals in 18 matches played. At the time, he formed a defensive partnership—believe it or not—with Rafael Tolói.

Okay, we get it, you probably already know everything written in the previous paragraph. So let’s focus a bit on the behind-the-scenes of this news, as a classic 1980s TV show would say (yes, the writer is old).

Dória’s arrival is being touted because the player is very fond of the club. And perhaps that’s the most accurate definition we could give, considering the history surrounding the deal.

Revealed by Botafogo, Dória has been looking for a club to return to Brazilian football after seven years in Mexican football since early December. And one of his first targets was São Paulo.

AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR found out that the former São Paulo player and his staff approached the Morumbi club at least twice over the past month to ask if there was any interest. But the answer was negative. And there’s a reason for that, besides the likely payment for his release. Even though one of the market priorities is a left-footed center-back, the main target, at coach Hernán Crespo’s request, was Gastón Ávila, who played in the last Brazilian Championship for Fortaleza.

And here’s an important note. São Paulo was indeed very optimistic about signing the Argentine. And there were reasons for that. Negotiations with Ávila’s agent were quick. There was interest in staying in Brazil and playing for Tricolor. But along the way, there was Ajax, the club that owns the player’s rights. And the Dutch never showed any willingness to make things easier (learn more by clicking here).

The new year began and Crespo returned to work, demanding the arrival of a left-footed defender. And, before the institutional crisis São Paulo is going through with the allegations against president Julio Casares, combined with the total lack of investment capacity, the options approached by Tricolor didn’t even agree to start talks. Except, of course, Dória.

The defender even tried to move on after São Paulo’s refusal. He negotiated with Internacional and Fluminense. With the latter, he was very close to signing for good, as he is now, but the opportunity to bring in one of Mirassol’s standouts last year, Jemmes—a name even considered by Tricolor—led the Rio club to withdraw from talks.

We can say that, and here with all due respect to Dória, with no way to assess other alternatives, they decided to go with him. A market opportunity, as they say.

It can’t be said that Dória doesn’t like São Paulo. He agreed to negotiate again, even after previous refusals, and went further: he insisted with his representatives that he is willing to accept less than what was initially asked, as the club wants to pay. At this moment, money is precisely the only thing separating the parties.

The verbally agreed contract so far is for two years, with an option to extend for one more if the defender meets productivity targets, such as the number of matches played.

If the deal goes through, Dória will arrive just the way São Paulo likes: for free (that is, with no payment for his rights), since he has a termination agreement with Atlas, from Mexico, in case he signs with a Brazilian team. In the current season in the North American country (which follows the European calendar), he played 13 games and scored one goal.

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