Sao Paulo Reportedly Rejects Orlando City’s Proposal For Paulo Henrique Ganso

If you’re starting to find this Sao Paulo-Orlando City dispute a little confusing, then it’s okay. We’re there, too.

Following reports on Tuesday that Orlando City put in another offer for Sao Paulo midfielder Paulo Henrique Ganso, in exchange for $1.8 million and a complete forgiveness of the debt owed to Orlando from Kaká’s loan last season, Globo.com is now reporting Sao Paulo has rejected that bid.

Orlando City reportedly placed a Thursday deadline on Sao Paulo to accept the Lions’ proposal before the team gives up its pursuit of the player, moves on to other transfer options, and takes the club to court over the late dues.

As explained yesterday, Orlando City has been looking for about $4.3 million from Sao Paulo as part of their agreement to send Kaká on-loan to the club last season while the Lions completed their transition to Major League Soccer.

The deal also involved provisions such as the Lions getting a large chunk of all revenue from games that Kaká played in, paying $1.3 million in Kaká’s wages, and even scheduling friendlies between the clubs — one in Brazil, and the other in Orlando. The Lions were to receive profits from both friendlies.

Those two agreed-upon friendlies haven’t happened yet, of course — Orlando City hosted Sao Paulo at Disney last season, but that was before Kaká officially signed with Orlando in the first place. One of the games was supposed to be played in January as part of the Lions’ preseason schedule.

As for Ganso, the Globo.com story says he has accepted Orlando City’s offer but won’t force his exit from Sao Paulo, where he is under contract until 2017.

With the deadline apparently set for Thursday and the two clubs so far apart in ideology, it’s starting to look less likely that Orlando City completes it’s desired move for Ganso, who would take up a Designated Player spot if signed.

This means Adrian Heath and Paul McDonough can likely now start attempting to lock up other options before the summer transfer window closes. The complexity of this deal could mean that if Orlando waits to get it done, and doesn’t end up signing Ganso, they might miss out on their other top targets, and it could even force them to go without making a big deal during this window.

We will continue to monitor this story as it develops.