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The Gianluca Busio rumors just keep coming. On the heels of Busio getting his second straight start for the United States Men’s National Team against Canada on Sunday, further reports came out linking Busio to newly promoted Serie A side, Venezia FC.
ESPN’s Taylor Twellman reported the deal is “just awaiting final docs and player medical.” He went on to say that SKC agreed to a deal between $10.5 and 11 million with incentives and that the deal “should be finalized by mid-week.”
Just awaiting final signed docs and player medical. @SportingKC agreed to the following; $10.5m-11m range between transfer and incentives for @gbusio13 with Venezia. Should be finalized by mid-week according to a source close to the player. #SportingKC #MLS
— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) July 18, 2021
Twellman continued that “the incentives are very, very attainable.” Our own Mike Kuhn got a response from Twellman that the deal is worth more than the previously reported but the $11 million is after incentives are hit.
To sweeten the pot even further, Sporting Kansas City will retain 20 percent of Busio’s sell on rights if he’s transferred again.
Should have included this earlier but another source confirmed that @SportingKC get 20% of sell-on rights of @gbusio13 above initial transfer fee in future moves.
— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) July 19, 2021
The total package is $11m which includes the transfer fee and all of the incentives. #SportingKC #MLS https://t.co/FUJDEItYgd
All of these numbers seem to smash the previously reported asking price of $10 million. That also probably means that a loan back to Sporting KC is extremely unlikely. This number will crush anything Venezia has ever spent before, with their previously reported high at $4.95m. Just this week they spent about $4 million on fellow MLS midfielder, FC Dallas’ Tanner Tessmann, who is also just 19-years-old.
As we laid out previously, Venezia has gone through a bit of a rebirth since being rescued by American investors a few years ago, moving from Serie D all the way to the top flight, Serie A. That means they’ll be fighting hard to stay up and avoid relegation and Busio and Tessmann will need to play early and often.
Here is to hoping Sporting can obtain a player or players with some of that Busio money to help push the team to greater heights in the future.