Enzo Fernandez has told Benfica he wants to leave for Chelsea this week after the English Premier League club offered to pay a transfer fee of €120million (£105.5m). Though the latest bid for the Argentina international represents a record sum for a midfielder, the Liga Portugal leaders are continuing to resist a sale.
Angered by Chelsea's “disrespectful” approach to signing Fernandez, Benfica say they will not accept payment of the fee in installments and will only allow the 22-year-old to change clubs this month if the player pays his contract's €120m release clause himself. Due to the laws in Portugal, the personal tax burden of doing so would effectively double the cost of the transfer to Fernandez's new club.
As Chelsea's move to secure Fernandez before Tuesday's transfer deadline is partially driven by accounting concerns – the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium wants to amortise the midfielder's fee over a period longer than the five-year limit that UEFA is about to add to Financial Fair Play regulations – further negotiation will be required if the deal is to be completed.
Benfica held talks with Fernandez at the end of last week in which they promised to allow him to leave at the end of this season, one in which they hope to regain the Portuguese title and reach at least the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Improved financial terms were proposed with Fernandez to be rewarded with a loyalty bonus of €2m, an amount which represents the net difference between his current wages and the terms on offer at Stamford Bridge. Benfica also tried to increase the value of his release clause to €150m.
Fernandez – signed for an initial transfer fee of €10m from River Plate last summer – refused to accept the latter proposal. Upon learning of Chelsea's intention to offer €120m over the weekend, the Argentine is understood to have spoken with coach Roger Schmidt and underlined his desire to leave, arguing that Benfica's initial asking price had now been met.
In December, Chelsea sent senior recruitment staff to Lisbon with a verbal offer to exceed Fernandez's release clause in an instalment-based deal. After their proposal on personal terms resulted in the player unsuccessfully asking Benfica president Rui Costa to approve the sale before making an unapproved New Year's trip to Argentina, Chelsea attempted to negotiate the fee down. Schmidt accused them of “disrespectful against all of us”.
Chelsea's American-led ownership group's total commitment to transfer fees in the eight months since their UK Government-enforced takeover of the club already exceeds half a billion Euros – an unprecedented investment in a single season.
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