Freddy’s nearly ready

Good news for Independiente fans: the club’s first transfer target is on the verge of signing, and the deal should go through at some point on Friday. Freddy Grisales, the Colombian international, will move from Colón de Santa Fe to the Avellaneda side. River Plate’s hopes of keeping Fernando Belluschi, meanwhile, are still uncertain.

‘Today we had a final meeting with the Independiente directors and, barring any last-minute snags, Grisales will play for this team in the coming season,’ Totono‘s agent Marcelo Ferreyra told Radio La Red on Thursday. He also stated that Colón had fulfilled their part of a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with the owners of Grisales’s registration, to allow the transfer to go through. The fine print will be confirmed on Friday.

Portugese champions Porto, meanwhile, released a statement making it clear that they had made ‘no offer’ for River Plate midfielder Fernando Belluschi. Belluschi’s agent, currently in Europe, had claimed that two European sides had made offers for his services: Porto and Greek side Olympiakos. With three Argentines in their squad already (Lucho González, Lisandro López and Ernesto Farías), the Portugese side were Belluschi’s preferred desination, but now it seems they’re either stalling, or his agent was making it up.

Olympiakos are reportedly prepared to match River’s valuation of US$10 million for the player, albeit only for the 60% of his registration owned by the club – the remaining 40% would stay with Swiss enterprise Pinas Sabih. Belluschi may be on his way, though how soon and to where, we don’t yet know. Watch this space…