Diego Rossi on Uruguayan radio: “No concrete offers to leave” LAFC

Transfer rumors hit hard on Thursday in Los Angeles, with the reports both here and abroad that Los Angeles Football Club were willing to break the bank to buy young attacker Brian Rodriguez from Uruguayan club Peñarol, the same club from which LAFC bought successful young attacker Diego Rossi.

Well, in a time-honored tradition in South America, there’s been plenty of news coming out of sports talk radio, as Rossi himself talked on what appears to be multiple shows last night in Uruguay about the rumors.

Rossi, linked earlier this month to a move to Russian club Krasnodar, said there are not yet any concrete offers for him to depart LAFC.

He also talked openly about Rodriguez coming to Los Angeles, mentioning he’s already reached out to the 19-year-old to welcome him in and offer support in any way, and talked up his compatriot’s game: “Brian has grown a lot, every time his game has gotten more dangerous and that is what they saw here [at LAFC].”

Now, while Rossi claims there’s no offers on the table to LAFC to transfer him to Europe yet, Peñarol’s treasurer, Isaac Alfie, was on another show in Uruguay on Thursday to explain the Rodriguez transfer to LAFC.

Alfie claims that LAFC beat out Serie A side Udinese to sign Rodriguez.

And he said that Rodriguez’s last game for Peñarol will be on Tuesday in the Copa Sudamericana Round of 16 against Fluminense.

Meanwhile, Peñarol president Alejandro Ruibal claims that Rossi could be sold to an English Premier League club, something the Uruguayans are eager to see because they have a sell-on clause from their sale of Rossi ahead of the 2018 MLS season. The specific club is not mentioned by Ruibal, and there are as yet no reports on that front.

Peñarol seem to be pretty pumped by all this business, as Rodriguez’s reported $11.5 million transfer fee was said to be a record by Alfie. Still no official word on LAFC’s side here, but in Uruguay they’re acting like it’s a done deal. It wouldn’t be unheard of for a selling club to progress the sale publicly before actually clinching it as a bargaining tactic, but hopefully both sides are on track and on the same page here.

And as for Rossi, the English transfer window closes on Aug. 9, so any imminent deal there would have to be done by then. It’s unclear if Rossi will actually be sold this window, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled and let you know.

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