Saviola Finds Relief in Sevilla

By European Football
August 12 2005

Javier Saviola has found a new team after a long hard summer. Barcelona agreed to loan him to Sevilla for a season. There are still no details on the player’s wage and who will pay it, but it is certainly a relief for the Argentine forward to have solved his immediate future. Frank Rijkaard didn’t want him in the team, Barcelona didn’t want to keep him because of his big wage, but didn’t want to give him away to anyone, and don’t even think about letting him go free.

Saviola didn’t want to reduce his wage by all means, didn’t want to leave Barcelona, and that’s both the city and the team. He was getting depressed for not knowing what would become of his future, and watching all options, like Espanyol and Atlético de Madrid, go down the drain was not doing any good to him as well as knowing that he wouldn’t stay with ‘los Culé’.

The problem started as soon as he got back from Monaco two months ago, and has ended just today, as Sevilla reached an agreement with Barcelona over his loan. Sevilla, who recently sold Julio Baptista to Real Madrid, needed a top class forward to replace the Brazilian and have found it in Saviola. His new team will pay a high percentage of the Argentine’s wage, although numbers have been kept undisclosed, and he will be presented this Saturday as a new player. President Del Nido stated:

“Saviola is a top world class player.”

“I want to remark his good will in coming to Sevilla despite having offers from many other important teams.”

“He wants to succeed in Spain and go to the 2006 World Cup.”

The player, on the other hand, showed himself very disappointed with Rijkaard and Barcelona, who didn’t allow him to go to Espanyol, the neighbour team, fearing that he would have a good season there and thus would ‘take revenge’. He said:

“I don’t expect to have a word in private or be given any promises, I know you can’t promise anything in football, but people can understand each other by being sincere.”

When asked about Barcelona’s denial on his transfer to Espanyol, the player refused to make any comments and stated:

“That is about the team’s policy, which I don’t want to discuss”

Bookmark or share this story with: