Sporting go all out for Issa Doumbia and may loosen the purse strings | OneFootball

Sporting’s qualification for the Champions League, secured after a 3-0 win over Gil Vicente, has given fresh momentum to the Lions’ board’s transfer market strategy. After securing Rodrigo Zalazar and all but finalising the Pedro Lima deal, the green and whites are now going all out for Issa Doumbia.

According to Record, a Sporting delegation will travel to Milan this week to meet with Venezia officials and try to finally unlock the transfer of the Italian midfielder. Sporting want to wrap up the deal quickly and avoid a further rise in competition for the Italy Under-21 international.

The 22-year-old continues to attract strong interest across the European market. In addition to Sporting, Roma, Newcastle, Everton, Brentford and Benfica have already shown interest to Venezia. In recent hours, Juventus have also been mentioned, although no formal approach has been made so far.

Given this situation, the Italians have toughened their stance in negotiations. The €15 million initially requested is no longer enough to complete the transfer, and Venezia are trying to take advantage of the growing international interest to maximise their financial return.

Despite the concerns beginning to emerge at Alvalade because of the rising figures, the board led by Frederico Varandas remains determined to secure the midfielder. The Sporting delegation will have room to make the offer more flexible and even go beyond the €20 million mark through add-ons, if that allows the deal to be completed by the end of the week.

On the player’s side, the desire remains clear. Issa Doumbia sees Sporting as the most appealing option for the next stage of his career, especially because of the chance to play in the Champions League, an objective he has already spoken about publicly in recent interviews.

The midfielder has already gathered detailed information about the Alvalade club and is now waiting for Venezia’s approval to move forward with personal negotiations with the Lions. If the transfer goes through, the Italian will have the task of filling the gap left by Hidemasa Morita, who has already said goodbye to Sporting supporters after the win over Gil Vicente.

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