Peñarol executive backtracks on Brian Rodriguez to LAFC claims

There’s been a ton of chatter in the Uruguayan sports talk radio sphere in the last 24 hours about the transfer rumor of Peñarol attacker Brian Rodriguez to Los Angeles Football Club, and from intriguing sources, including LAFC’s Diego Rossi and two Peñarol executives.

In the case of one of those executives, club treasurer Isaac Alfie, after going into extensive detail about the details of the deal, reportedly a record-breaking $11.5 million transfer fee, he’s now furiously backtracking that it isn’t actually done. Whoops!

“We understand we still have differences [in transfer talks]” Alfie told Las Voces 1010 on Friday.

“Negotiations are ongoing, whenever you negotiate a contract there are differences,” he continued.

Reports on Thursday in the United States indicated that LAFC were in discussions but it was not a done deal. ESPN’s Taylor Twellman claimed on Thursday LAFC GM John Thorrington was on his way to South America to finish it.

More details out of Uruguay from Alfie:

“We’ll have to wait the next few hours to see what happens.” Hmm, a lot different than the previous blabbing over the minute details of how much money Peñarol was going to get from him.

“The preliminary contract we had wasn’t agreed to so we’re still negotiating.”

~~HEAD EXPLODES~~

All things considered, this is standard operating procedure in South America. An executive gets on the radio, says things that are either an exaggeration or not actually true as a bargaining/strong-arm tactic towards the team they are negotiating with, and then lets the world burn.

This is speculation on my part, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Alfie decided to really drive the $11.5 million fee in public as a triumph, hoping LAFC go along with it because hey, it’s out in the open, but LAFC did not actually agree to that fee, maybe they’re several million dollars lower in the course of ongoing negotiations. Then, when LAFC came back with, “Hey, we don’t have a deal yet, nice try on the radio stuff!” Peñarol had to get back down to business to keep working on a deal.

Given how quickly this is moving, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s completely changed three minutes after this is published. But again, even though this is technically a public setback from what Peñarol was claiming last night, it really does fit a pattern. I expect negotiations to continue, and from there we’ll see what happens and if the deal from Brian Rodriguez to LAFC gets done.

We’ll keep you posted!

What do you think? Leave a comment below!