Former Tottenham Hotspur Davinson Sanchez saw a move to Russian giants Spartak Moscow ‘fall through’ in the summer before leaving the Premier League for Galatasaray.
That is according to Oleg Malyshev, Spartak Moscow’s sporting director casting his mind back to the summer of 2023 and a deal which, despite reaching an advanced stage at one point, eventually collapsed.
Tottenham Hotspur had accepted a £13 million bid from Spartak for Davinson Sanchez in July.
The Colombia international would eventually put pen to paper with Galatasaray a few months later, however, Super Lig challengers’ gain proving to be Spartak’s loss.
Tottenham nearly sold Davinson Sanchez to Russia
“The external factors matter,” Malyshev explains to RBC. “In the summer, we had options to strengthen (our squad) that seemed interesting and fell through for the reason that either the footballer himself or the team that was selling him did not want to sign an agreement with the Russian club.
“Much had been done to sign defender Davinson Sanchez from Tottenham. And he himself was ready to go, but the deal fell through.
“The player was ready to come to us.”
Well, initially he was.
Fernando Villarreal, one of Sanchez’s representatives, claimed at the time that the former Ajax stopper performed a rather dramatic U-turn on a potential switch to Russia, eventually ‘refusing’ Spartak’s advances for personal reasons.
“The main reason was his social life,” Villarreal said. “And, in general, the life and future of his wife and son.”
Sanchez finally left Tottenham for Istanbul in early September. Galatasaray paying an almost identical fee to the one Spartak were prepared to part with. His departure, alongside that of Clement Lenglet and Eric Dier, laid the foundations for a long-overdue overhaul of the Spurs backline, Radu Dragusin and Micky van de Ven both arriving since the appointment of Ange Postecoglou.
Former Ajax man now at Galatasaray
Sanchez, a Europa League finalist with Ajax in 2017, also had the chance to return to the Netherlands with PSV Eindhoven. It was the club however – rather than the player – who called off discussions on this occasion.
“Sanchez was the only one who gave us the feeling that he didn’t really want to go,” Marcel Brands, PSV’s general director, told Voetbal International, explaining why Armel Bella-Kotchap ended up arriving from Southampton instead.
“In terms of his salary, it seemed feasible. But all the other players we talked to quickly made it clear that they wanted to go to PSV.
“Things were different with Sanchez. That’s why we decided not to continue with that and loan Armel Bella-Kotchap.”
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