Former Sporting Lisbon winger Jovane Cabral turned down Burnley for a second time on the final day of the January transfer window, O Jogo reporting that Real Valladolid struck a £3.5 million deal instead.
Not that Jovane can officially be described as a Real Valladolid player. Not yet, anyway.
According to Radio Renascenca, there were problems registering the Cape Verde international on deadline day. It wasn’t quite David Gea and ‘Fax Gate’, but demons in the machine mean Jovane’s mid-season switch to La Liga remains very much up in the air.
FIFA, the report adds, should confirm by the close of play on Sunday whether or not Jovane can officially be registered at the Estadio Jose Zorrilla.
Real Valladolid beat Burnley to Sporting Lisbon forward Jovane Cabral
Jovane certainly wasn’t expecting such drama when he snubbed Burnley – again – in favour of a move across the Portuguese-Spanish border.
According to Record, the runaway Championship leaders agreed a fee with Sporting Lisbon last summer. Jovane, at the time, opted to stay in the Portuguese capital and fight for his place. Six months later – after accepting that his future lay away from Los Leoes – the former Lazio loanee rebuffed Burnley’s advances again in favour of Real Valladolid.
Last season’s Segunda runners-up agreed to sign Jovane on loan. He will have a £3.5 million purchase clause in his contract. But as for whether or not the skilful winger ever dons those purple-and-white stripes…
Well, an answer should be forthcoming before next week begins.
“I trust we will know Cabral’s fate before the weekend,” Valladolid director Fran Sanchez tells Marca. “We maintain that we did everything on time. The documents were signed, they are validated by La Liga. But there was an incident in the FIFA TMS (transfer matching system) at 11pm.
“The documents were entered, and there were computer failures. We are waiting for a response from FIFA. But we have sufficient arguments (for Jovane’s signing to be made official).”
Burnley, at least, are unlikely to miss Jovane too keenly. Vincent Kompany has the Championship’s most fearsome frontline at his disposal, Jay Rodriguez, Anass Zaroury and Manuel Benson joined at Turf Moor by Michael Obafemi and big-money arrival Lyle Foster.
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