UPDATED: Erik Palmer-Brown to Juventus rumors will not die

UPDATE: After the 3-0 win over the Fluminense U23’s, Sporting Kansas City manager spoke via conference call with the media.

One of the topics was of course the consistent Erik Palmer-Brown rumors. Vermes confirmed that Juventus has tried again.

"They have come back to us twice now and it has gone up obviously, hopefully they don’t come back to us with the same offer. It’s gone up each time and it’s just not something we’re willing to entertain," Vermes stated.

"We haven’t had the intention to sell the player," Vermes continued. "He’s been with us since he was eleven years old and he’s been developed thus far by us and I think if we keep doing that he has incredible potential and we see it in him. So at the moment we have declined all offers."

The Erik Palmer-Brown story does not want to go away. It was reported a couple weeks ago that Juventus had an interest in Palmer-Brown and it was even reported that there was a deal for a cool million dollars.

At that time the reports from Italy would also say that Juventus would leave Palmer-Brown with Sporting Kansas City until he turned 18 and then they would take him to Europe.

As we reported last week, straight from Sporting KC Manager and Technical Director Peter Vermes, there was no deal. Vermes acknowledged that Juventus had contacted the club but there was no deal.

Around that same time a source with the team that wished to remain anonymous revealed that the bid was not for a million dollars although it was significant and was edging towards that million dollar range.

On Friday, ESPN FC reported that Juventus was a step closer to signing the talented young Kansas City native. A fan asked Sporting KC president Robb Heinemann over twitter about the situation and this was his reply:

@BradShapiroKC as straightforward as possible. They r here in Orlando watching him, and we've not agreed to anything. And not motivated 2

— Robb Heineman (@RobbHeineman) February 22, 2014

So Juventus is in Orlando to watch him but there is still no agreement and Heinemann says they are not motivated to make a deal.

Will it happen? Maybe. Maybe not.

Two reasons why it won't happen (yet)

1. FIFA laws forbid transfers of players under the age of 18 unless a few certain condition are met and none of them are in this case.

2. Why would Sporting KC sell a player that will not leave for over a year and keep him around and continue training him? Why not keep him, train him and sell in a year for TWO million! Or keep him for a couple years and let him develop into an even larger transfer fee?

But it might

Of course it might happen, a million in the hand is worth two in the bank. It's a gamble either way.