Mixed Reports on Busio Transfer Deal

Update 9:54 am 7/17/2021: There is a bit of further back and forth on this one. One report from Fabrizio Romano is saying it’s a “done deal and total agreement reached, confirmed.”

While Sam McDowell at The Star is insisting it’s not done yet. Talks are progressing but no deal is in place. Further, Sam confirmed that “terms between Busio and Venezia haven’t agreed to either.”

We’ll bring you more as it develops.

The rumor mill surrounding Sporting Kansas City midfielder, Gianluca Busio switched into high gear with reports out of Italy today. Gianluca Di Marzio and Fabrizio Romano in Italy both reported that a deal for Busio to transfer to newly promoted Serie A side Venezia FC was in the final stages and would be finalized next week. Di Marzio reported that Busio would be flying to Italy this next week for his physical to finalize the deal.

Di Marzio’s report continues with further information about the deal, saying the deal was for €4m, or about $4.72m. That’s certainly short of the reported $6m that was making the rounds over the past couple weeks. That’d be about $600,000 more than Venezia reportedly paid for FC Dallas midfielder Tanner Tessmann earlier this week.

On this side of the Atlantic though, the reports were countered by Sam McDowell of the KC Star and Tom Bogert from MLSsoccer.com who both said that no agreement had been reached nor were they in the final stages of a deal. McDowell saying that his information game directly from Sporting head coach, Peter Vermes.

It is certainly possibly the people talking to McDowell and Bogert are saying that because they can’t speak definitively until the deal is actually finalized and announced by both clubs. At the same time, the report out of Italy is lower than most people would have expected for Busio and according to the last reports there were still details that were not finalized.

Things like KC’s hope and desire to have Busio stay with the club through the end of the 2021 MLS season, incentive clauses to raise the transfer fee, and sell on fees. Could KC potentially accept a lower initial transfer fee for higher incentives, a higher percentage of the sell on fee, or to keep Busio on loan through the end of 2021? It’s certainly possible, but would still seem like a step down in evaluation from where KC values him. The reports of $10m were always a starting point with the expectation of getting a lower value, but to get less than half that would certainly seem like a loss for KC in transfer value.

The transfer window for most of Europe is open until the end of August, so there is still plenty of time for a deal to be worked out between Kansas City and whatever team ends up winning the race to sign Busio.