Atletico Mineiro’s Lucas Pratto maybe the next to move to China

Argentinean striker Lucas Pratto looks as though he will be the next big name to move to the Chinese Superleague in the coming days. Pratto joined Atlético Mineiro from Valez Sarsfield a year ago and scored 13 goals for the Brasileirão runners up in 2015. Galo had resisted two bids from Chinese club Hebei Fortune, […]
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sambafoot_admin
2016-02-05 22:56:00

Argentinean striker Lucas Pratto looks as though he will be the next big name to move to the Chinese Superleague in the coming days. Pratto joined Atlético Mineiro from Valez Sarsfield a year ago and scored 13 goals for the Brasileirão runners up in 2015.

Galo had resisted two bids from Chinese club Hebei Fortune, who recently bought ex Arsenal winger Gervinho. Atlético are reluctant to lose the Argentine, given the fact that they do not possess another natural striker in their first team squad and having sold defender Jemerson to Monaco earlier this week. Likewise, playmaker Giovanni Augusto left the club this week to join Corinthians.

The board of the Belo Horizonte club are said to be asking for €20m for their talisman, given the fact that they kick off their Copa Libertadores campaign in just over a week. Hebei are likely to meet the asking price in the coming days. This would represent a €7m profit on what they paid for Pratto and would also surpass the fee they collected when they sold Bernard to Shakhtar Donetsk in 2013.

Pratto is thought to be Atlético’s highest paid player, but can still expect to earn five times his current salary in China. New coach Diego Aguirre said, “The president (Daniel Nepomuceno) said the player will stay until June. But he said the same about Jemerson and had to sell. But football is like that, there are things we cannot guarantee.

“Let’s wait and see what happens. We are working hard, with possible options if something happens. Not to stay unprotected and not be surprised,” added the Uruguayan coach. Pratto did feature in the photoshoot for the new home shirt, which took place on Thursday and the club are still hopeful of tying him to a new, improved contract.