Sunderland’s chances of signing Luciano Rodriguez become clearer
Former Sunderland target Luciano Rodriguez is wanted by City Football Group – the company who own Manchester City and many other teams across the world.
The 2003-born Uruguayan winger, who is part of his country’s squad for the current set of international games, is being seriously considered by the group, according to football transfer expert Fabrizio Romano.
They are expected to make a bid of up to $15 million for the forward, who plays for Liverpool UY in his home country, but they wouldn’t exceed that price, as per Romano. It is unclear which team in the group’s portfolio of clubs that he would go to, should a deal be made.
Sunderland were linked to the youngster back in November by journalist Alan Nixon. He said that the club’s head of recruitment, Stuart Harvey, had been over in South America to watch Rodriguez. The Sunderland Echo described him as: “an ambitious target for the Black Cats.”
Football content creator Nathan Joyes, who specialises in South American football, revealed how much he thought Sunderland might be able to get him for. “In terms of cost, Fabricio Diaz moved from Liverpool to Al-Gharafa in the summer for around €6-8million (£5-7 million),” said Joyes. “I’d guess Rodriguez’s fee would be close to half that amount.”
The natural goalscorer has caught the eye of many other top clubs in Europe. Reports from Spain suggested that both Real Madrid and Barcelona were interested in signing Rodriguez, as per the Echo, while Romano added that Dutch club Feyenoord have wanted the Uruguayan since the start of the January window.
All of this interest from Europe will be pleasing to the forward, as he is reported to be keen on a move to play his football on the continent.
Luciano Rodriguez: The Uruguayan wonderkid
The 20-year-old right-winger has impressed on both the domestic and international stages. The Primera División, Uruguay’s top league, has only recently kicked off, and Rodriguez has scored twice in five games so far. Last season, he supplied a combined 13 goals and assists in 31 matches.
There are areas in which he’s shown himself to be quite rough around the edges, in comparison to the rest of his diamond-level potential. According to Sofascore, he only completes 67% of his passes, isn’t very good at winning duels, and has made five errors that have led to shots in as many games this season.
At the recent under-20s World Cup, he scored the winner in the final against Italy. Across his career in his country’s under-20s and under-23s, the forward has found the back of the net 11 times in 18 games.
Even though he is naturally right-footed, he likes to come in off the right and occupy space more centrally, as is shown by his heatmaps from both this season and the last.
Sunderland have little chance of getting Luciano Rodriguez
Getting their hands on him was always going to be a long shot for the Black Cats. They were never going to be the biggest dog in the fight, considering some of the other teams that were sniffing around the star-to-be.
Now that there is concrete interest from the city group, and a top club with European pedigree, like Feyenoord, Sunderland’s chances of picking up another young gem have become even slimmer.
Their pitch to him would have been obvious. ‘We are building one of the youngest, most exciting teams in Europe, and we want you to be the jewel of our crown, and hopefully you can take us to the Premier League, or we can sell you there, in a few years’ time.’ Would that have been enough to compete with the other names that they are up against? Probably not. One thing that does seem sure is that Rodriguez will get his wish to play in Europe. It just won’t be for Sunderland.
