‘I don’t cry for players who don’t want to wear our shirt’: Benfica president Rui Costa SLAMS Enzo Fernandez for his behaviour while trying to force through his £107m move to Chelsea, as he claims Argentina star ‘didn’t give us any chance’
Benfica president Rui Costa has admitted he ‘won’t cry’ for Enzo Fernandez in a scathing account of the midfielder’s conduct during his deadline day move to Chelsea.
The 22-year-old joined the Blues for a British record £107 million after frantic negotiations that saw the deal completed just ‘two minutes’ before the deadline.
Despite Costa’s best efforts, he could not persuade Fernandez to stay with the Eagles until the end of the season, and has now recounted a bitter end to the Argentine star’s time in Portugal.
‘Enzo Fernandez did not want to stay at Benfica. He didn’t give us any chance,’ the president said at a Bwin event this week.
‘I did my best, I’m sad, but I’m not going to cry for a player who didn’t want to stay. When Chelsea arrived, it was really impossible to change his mind.’
Enzo Fernandez joined Chelsea on transfer deadline day for a British record £107m
Benfica president Rui Costa has hit out at the manner of his departure from the club
The 22-year-old had been an important member of the Benfica side before his move
Fernandez is believed to have wanted a move since the World Cup, and defied his club by flying back to Argentina to celebrate the New Year as he pushed for a move to England.
Benfica manager Roger Schmidt had claimed no deal would take place in mid-January, but Chelsea came back in for the midfielder after giving up in their pursuit of Brighton’s Moises Caicedo and deciding they would pay Fernandez’s full release clause.
Costa added: ‘During deadline day we found an agreement to sell Enzo to Chelsea in the summer but he didn’t want to stay.
‘From the moment Enzo realised [Chelsea would pay] the value of the clause it was unrelenting. We tried to insist, but the player did not show any openness to continuing at Benfica.
‘I proposed to Chelsea that he stay until the summer for a lower value, but the player did not want to continue at Benfica – and this is when everything changed.’
Costa went on to explain how unwilling he was to keep an…