Orlando City Deadline for Sao Paulo Midfielder Paulo Henrique Ganso Deal Reportedly Pushed to Monday

Today is Thursday, which means we’ve reached the mythical deadline day for Sao Paulo to agree to Orlando City’s offer for Paulo Henrique Ganso in exchange for money and debt forgiveness, as reported in the Brazilian press the last several days.

However, maybe today isn’t deadline day after all. UOL Sport reporters William Palenzuela and Pedro Lopes reported this morning that Ganso has until Monday to transfer because after July 27 “it will be impossible.”

As we told you yesterday, the player has agreed to Orlando City’s terms and it simply remains for the two clubs to work out their issues, which are considerable.

The financial rift between Sao Paulo FC and Orlando City is over monies owed over the Kaká loan to the Brazilian side last season. SPFC was supposed to pay Kaká $1.3 million in wages, in addition to giving the Lions the gate from two friendlies that never happened, as well as 20% of the additional revenue from the attendance bump generated by the OCSC captain’s popularity in his home country.

Sao Paulo management believes the Brazilian side owes Orlando City far less than the Lions are claiming and seem willing to go to court over it. The Lions are offering debt forgiveness as well as an infusion of fresh cash to the financially struggling club in exchange for transferring Ganso, an attacking midfielder under contract until 2017. The move would add a DP to City’s lineup who could either play in the center with Kaká on the wing, or allow Adrian Heath to keep the captain where he is and put Ganso out on the right side.

For his part in all of this, Ganso has reportedly agreed to terms with City but is not forcing his way out of Sao Paulo to get to Orlando, where he would stand to triple his salary. According to the blog Perrone (via Google Chrome translate):

There is a great list of advantages Goose will avenge his move to Orlando City. The main one would be felt in the pocket. The US team is willing to pay $ 3 million (about R $ 9,517,500) per year by half. Would be $ 15 million (R $ 47,587,500) for five-year contract.

To live in the land of Disney, he would receive, then, almost triple what wins in São Paulo. Today, Goose is entitled to approximately R $ 300,000 (US $ 94,300) thousand monthly or counting 13th salary, approximately R $ 3.9 million (about US $ 1.2 million) a year.

The blog also reports that Sao Paulo has been late in getting Ganso his paycheck at times, which to this point has not been publicly contentious, but you’d have to think at some point it would get old.

Orlando City General Manager Paul McDonough, owner Flavio Augusto da Silva and Heath have all said publicly that the Lions will be active in the summer transfer window, which closes Aug. 6. Waiting until Monday would be the latest the club could realistically hold out for Ganso, as it would leave just 10 days to complete the rest of the team’s summer business. If the Lions can’t land a DP midfielder to play with Kaká, they might still look to add a striker at Designated Player, using Targeted Allocation Money to pay down Bryan Rochez or Carlos Rivas.

The club would like to add a player at every level and they have addressed the back line depth problem with the addition of Corey Ashe. The team would like to add an attacking midfielder and a forward before the window closes.

Meanwhile, the window on Ganso, while not shut yet, is closing rapidly. A push to Monday would enable a little more wiggle room for the two clubs to come together.

We’ll continue to monitor developments.