Brazilian Serie A club Santos FC has reportedly turned down the offer of Chinese Super League squad Beijing Guoan FC for its resident striker Ricardo Oliveira after failing to comply with the footballer's €12 million release clause.
Goal reported that Alvinegro Praiano rejected the said proposal after Imperial Guards "refused to meet their €12 million valuation" for the 35-year-old former Brazil international.
Cesar Conforti, the club's vice-president confirmed the end of discussions with the CSL side following the refusal to agree with the transfer fee conditions.
"There will be no more negotiations. He will stay," the VP said. "He is our player and will remain our player. He will not leave. We do not want to sell any player."
Beijing Guoan already has three Brazilians in its roster, namely Kléber, Ralf, and Renato Augusto, with the latter two just signed during the recent Chinese winter transfer window.
The club also has Uzbek Egor Krimets and Turkish Burak Yilmaz to complete its allowable five international players, which means that they will have to let go of one if they would have signed Oliveira.
Shanghai Daily noted that Guoan could be searching for a replacement for "former FC Porto and Palmeiras striker Kléber, who could leave" the squad anytime.
Guoan is reportedly looking for another deal elsewhere at this time, but with the Chinese window closing, the team "could make a last-minute attempt to reignite the deal", the report continued.
Should the deal push through at the last minute, the 6-foot São Paulo, Brazil native would not be the first player from Santos to move to China with 23-year-old forward Geuvânio Santos Silva being the first one to leave the club for Chinese second division squad Tianjin Quanjian FC. Geuvânio joined fellow Brazilians Luis Fabiano and Jadson in Tianjin.
Oliveira is a proven association football veteran who is already playing in his 16th year. His last two seasons were spent with Santos where he appeared in a total of 67 games in all competitions while also scoring 39 goals in the process.
He had also suited up for one season with Italian Serie A squad AC Milan in 2006-2007 and also some time with Spanish clubs Valencia (2003-2004) and Real Betis (2004-2006, 2008-2009).