Sao Paulo have no intention of letting Lucas Moura leave the club and say the midfielder, who has been linked to Chelsea, is also keen to stay.
Midfielder set to shun interest from Chelsea and Inter
Sao Paulo have no intention of letting Lucas Moura leave the club and say the Brazilian midfielder, who has been linked to Chelsea, is also keen to stay.
The 19-year-old has emerged as one of the most exciting young talents in South American football over the past couple of seasons and has been tipped to make the move to Europe.
A number of leading clubs are reportedly keeping tabs on his progress and Sao Paulo's president, Juvenal Juvencio, recently stated that Chelsea were
closest to signing Lucas.
Inter Milan are also believed to have had a bid for the Brazil international rejected, with Juvencio making it clear that he will only be sold for 'enormous' money.
And Sao Paulo director of football Adalberto Baptista has now stressed that Lucas would rather stay put at the current time.
Happy
"We have no interest in letting Lucas go," Baptista told
Radio Estadao ESPN.
"Lucas also said he has no interest in leaving Sao Paulo. If it's to discuss a transfer, we have to talk about the buy-out clause, as we know his market value is much higher than what has been offered for him."
The player's agent, Wagner Ribeiro, has also stated that Lucas is happy at Sao Paulo and has no plans to join Inter at this stage of his career.
"Inter made me an offer of €18million (£14.5m) for Lucas, but I did not even waste my time with that because the player has already said that he does not want to leave Sao Paulo," Ribeiro told
UOL Esporte.
