Blogs

Morelos turns down £30m offer from China

|
Image for Morelos turns down £30m offer from China

Rangers star striker Alfredo Morelos has turned down a lucrative £30m offer to play for Chinese Super League team Hebei Fortune, according to Sky Sports.

In a story on their live transfer blog (Wednesday, 2.29pm) they claim that the three-year deal would have given Morelos £10m-a-year before tax.

Hebei Fortune were said to be willing to pay Rangers a fee of £15m+ for Morelos but the striker has indicated that he doesn’t want to sign.

How much?

Steven Gerrard recently called for Morelos to stand up as a Rangers player and commit himself to the cause [Scotsman] and while this isn’t exactly that, it would be a huge boost to Gerrard if he had turned down such an extraordinary sum of money.

The £30m in wages before tax would have set Morelos and his family up for life – not bad for a 23-year-old.

However, it doesn’t really stack up. With the 100% transfer tax, it means Hebei Fortune would have been paying £30m for Morelos with another £30m in wages, plus the player’s tax liabilities on top. That’s an absolutely massive sum of money for a player who’s untested outside of the Scottish Premiership.

Morelos has been incredibly successful at Rangers, winning the Golden Boot last season and registering an impressive 0.68 goals per 90 minutes in the Premiership, up from 0.5 in the 17/18 season [wyscout.com].

But is he really worth that much money?

Likely to happen?

No. With just over an hour to go before the Chinese transfer window shuts (5pm UK time), a huge deal like this would be almost impossible to sort in time now.

In addition, Hebei Fortune already have four foreign players [TransferMarkt], including Javier Mascherano, and that would complicate the move even further.

Could it be a way of smoking out any other offers for him before the Scottish window shuts? That doesn’t happen until September 2, although the UK window shuts on August 8.

Share this article