Wanderley, 27, has been chased by the Blue Wave all summer since they decided to ditch underwhelming Brazil international Nilmar. The ex-Cruzeiro and Flamengo striker had come to their attention after he scored an exceptional 32 goals in 51 Arabian Gulf League appearances for the relegation battlers since a summer 2014 switch from Qatar’s Al Arabi.
The formalities on the deal will be completed in the coming days, meaning – alongside fellow new boy and Morocco playmaker Abdelaziz Barrada – he will be registered in plenty of time for the historic continental showdown against Doha’s El Jaish next month.
With France-born forward Jires Kembo Ekoko and Burkina Faso winger Jonathan Pitroipa expected to be retained, Wanderley is likely to have needed to acquire the requisite papers to fill the Asian slot in the four-player foreign quota.
This would explain the delay in finalising the transfer.
Coach Ivan Jovanovic’s side struggled domestically last term, failing to build on their preceding President’s Cup and Arabian Gulf Cup triumphs.
تعلن شركة النصر لكرة القدم عن الاتفاق مع نادي الشارقة لانتقال المهاجم فاندرلي سانتوس إلى صفوف العميد
— AL Nasr Club (@ALNasrSC) July 10, 2016
This was partly explained by the inadequate replacing of errant target man Ibrahima Toure, with the slight Nilmar being brought in from Internacional after the Senegal star went AWOL for the second-successive summer.
Despite possessing a completely different physical profile, a regular use of long balls in a 4-5-1 formation remained. Ill-suited Nilmar scored only 11 goals in 26 top-flight appearances as the Al Maktoum Stadium-outfit limped home fifth.
He proved more useful in the ACL, but his three goals in six games as Nasr made the knockout stages for the first time could not save him.
