President said Everton wanted his £32m star; now he joins MLS club for just £4m

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Speaking to Calciomercato one year ago, Santos president Jose Carlos Peres obviously felt he was in a position of strength.

A number of major European clubs had come calling for Yeferson Soteldo and Peres wasted little time in slapping a £32 million price tag on the head of his much-coveted Venezuela international.

“Inter Milan asked me (about Soteldo) but they stopped after my request for €35 million,” said the Santos chief.

“Look, Soteldo is a young player who has sensational skills, he is a player who decides games. All the big teams in Brazil have asked me for him, Premier League teams like Everton want him, and he has many requests from Spain.”

Peres is no longer Santos president, leaving his post in late 2020.

But we’d certainly be keen to find out what he thought when the announcement came, earlier this week, that Soteldo was joining MLS outfit Toronto FC for far less than £32 million.

According to Globo Esporte, Toronto have paid just £4 million. Quite the climbdown.

“We are very excited for Yeferson to join our club,” Toronto president Bill Manning tells Waking The Red. “He is a dynamic, exciting, fearless player who will immediately improve our already strong roster.”

Now, Everton may be in the market for a “dynamic, exciting, fearless” attacker after an underwhelming end to a season that promised so much. If that same player has Pele’s seal of approval, all the better.

But how serious the Toffees were about taking Soteldo to Goodison Park is anyone’s guess.

13 months on from Peres’ headline-making interview, that’s the only evidence we have of Everton’s interest in a footballer who, in the space of one year, has seen his price tag plummet by £28 million.