Brazilian club Botafogo wants to fend off interest from Real Madrid in its 18-year-old prodigy Matheus Nascimento with a new contract that will see the player loaned to one of the owner’s European teams for three months each season.
Botafogo owner John Textor, whose stable of clubs includes Premier League Crystal Palace and Ligue 1’s Olympique Lyonnais, told Reuters that he is trying to give the striker “an offer of a lifetime that no kid has ever seen in Brazil.”
“We are offering a contract that is extremely lucrative to him as a player but we are also hardwiring in the contract a guarantee first team roster spot in Europe with the clubs in which we have ownership,” Textor said on Wednesday.
“He would play for Botafogo but the season in Brazil ends on November 15. So, I can put him in a three month loan in Europe in a first team roster for him to learn what it’s like to be a top level pro.”
Textor knows that since the highly-rated forward’s contract expires in June 2023 and with top European clubs chasing him, the matter is urgent.
“He will either sign a long term deal with us or we gonna sell him soon,” Textor said.
“I may lose him because maybe I’m too late. Who knows to what extent his father has already had conversations with at least a dozen of clubs.
“But we are offering him a chance to not jump off the cliff... going too early (to Europe).
“Kids go (to Europe) and they are not ready. Their development is broken, their lives are broken, they get demoralized. There is so much that could go wrong.”
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