Arabian Gulf League title chasers Al Jazira have agreed a fee to sign Jefferson Farfan from Schalke 04, with Al Nasr making a bid for current winger Jonathan Pitroipa – the man the Peruvian is set to replace.
The Pride of Abu Dhabi have been calmly assessing their opt-ions for the vital fourth-and-final foreign player slot since an ambitious move for Roma’s Gervinho fell through last month because of the wide man’s “obscene demands”.
An optimistic offer was made to Robinho ahead of his big-money move to Chinese powerhouse Guangzhou Evergrande, while Santos playmaker Lucas Lima was also a target.
Returning coach Abel Braga has now settled on 30-year-old forward Farfan and Die Konigsblauen sporting director Horst Heldt revealed they had reluctantly
Reports in Germany have put the bid at €10 million (Dh39.8m), with a three-year contract on the table.
“The conditions are there, but the ink still isn’t dry,” he told Schalke’s website. “Jeff is an outstanding player. In October he will be 31 and he’s said that he’d like another change of scenery and to take up the lucrative offer from Abu Dhabi.
“So we’ve decided as a club, after much deliberation and with a heavy heart, not to stand in his way.”
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Farfan has scored 39 times in 167 Bundesliga appearances since he joined from PSV Eindhoven in 2008, though an injury-disrupted 2014/15 saw him fail to notch in nine appearances.
The AGL runners-up have already bought attacking midfiel-der Thiago Neves and South Korea defensive midfielder Park Jong-woo after deciding to only retain top-scoring forward Mirko Vucinic from their non-Emirati quota.
A victim of the shake-up by club legend Braga – who is venerated for the 2010/11 AGL and President’s Cup double which brought a glorious end to a three-year spell – has been Pitroipa.
The Blue Wave are eager to snap him up after a debut campaign, which featured a joint-league-best eight assists, and a permanent bid has been made in recent days at the behest of coach Ivan Jovanovic.
Jazira are yet to respond, but the Dubai outfit are hopeful they have finally found a replacement for Al Arabi loanee Pablo Hernandez
after last-minute hitches in their pursuits of Zenit St Petersburg’s Danny, Roma’s Marquinho and Porto’s Silvestre Varela.
“We really thought we had deals for Marquinho and Varela all sorted but then Marquinho changed his mind and Porto offered Varela a €1m (Dh4.0m) increase to his contract,” a senior Nasr source said.
“But we have made a bid for Pitroipa, a player coach Jovanovic absolutely loves. Just because someone is not fully valued by Jazira, it does not make them a bad player.”
The President’s Cup and Arabian Gulf Cup holders have already recruited playmaker Luis Jimenez, defender Khalid Jalal and striker Salem Saleh.
