Feyenoord has been charmed by NEC midfielder Kodai Sano for some time. The Rotterdam team would like to sign him, but according to the Nijmegen club, the midfielder will not leave the Lower City for less than twenty million euros. Sano himself is shocked when he hears the asking price.
Earlier this week, NEC director Wilco van Schaik announced that the club does not intend to cooperate in a departure at all. “There is no clause in his contract, so then it is up to you. Guido Albers (Sano’s agent, ed.) said on TV something about twenty million, but we are not prepared to do anything for that at the moment,” said Van Schaik.
He emphasized that NEC wants to keep the selection together. “That may sound crazy, but we really want to keep everything together. We think that this boy can also be sporty and financially valuable next summer. We want to create something. We have never had this luxury.” Still, he kept his guard up: “Never say never.”
Sano himself thinks the price tag is too high. “Twenty million? That’s too much for me,” he says in conversation with Of Volkskrant. “I am modest, I have only made a few goals and assists. Robin Roefs went to Sunderland for ten million, right? I feel like twenty million is too high for me; for that I need ten goals and fifteen assists.”
The Japanese midfielder was in the interest of Feyenoord and PSV, but does not see a departure happening immediately this season, partly in view of the upcoming World Cup. “The most important thing is that I play. I don’t know what the national coach thinks, but if I play well in the next four months, I might have a good chance,” he concludes.
