Federico Pastorello tells CSN's SoccerPlus that Marco Di Vaio could still join Montreal this summer, despite reports otherwise.
Responding to news report out of Bologna, that Marco Di Vaio shut the door on a two-year $ 3.8 million offer from the Montreal Impact, the player's agent says there is still possibility that his client could end up in Canada after all.
"I believe Marco is tired of seeing rumours sending him to North America. He's preoccupied to see Bologna avoid relegation and that's all that matters for him right now," Pastorello said in a phone conversation on Wednesday.
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Bologna has six games remaining in Serie A after defeating Cagliari 1-0 on Thursday (Di Vaio was left out of the lineup for this one). They are 12th in the table, six points off the relegation zone. The Rossoblu still needs 13 points to guarantee its place in the Italian top flight next fall.
For the first time since this saga kicked off, the stakeholders involced are naming names. The agent confirmed he had phone conversations with Montreal's sporting director, Nick De Santis, about his 35-year-old client, but that "no concrete offer has been made." He also denied information saying the Canadian club wanted to use his services to get in touch with more European players in the future.
On this side of the Atlantic, Montreal's sporting director also identified Marco Di Vaio for the first time as a recruiting target in a chat with Radio-Canada Sports' Antoine Deshaies at the club's training session on Wednesday morning.
"Marco is one of the player with who we are in contact. We are talking with his agent to see if we are able to bring him on. His contract his now owned by another club (Bologna) so we must be careful to respect this point," Nick DeSantis told Deshaies.
" (For us) the door is not closed. Once again he (Di Vaio) must be careful about what he says. His intentions (appears) to be about staying in Italy, but we are always looking at possibilities."
And about the salary figures printed on Tuesday in the Bologna paper? We must look at this as a negotiating move on the part of the Italian player, just as Pat Leduc suggested on our weekly show, which started airing on Wednesday.
Another day, another twist, but things are moving. Will it be in the right direction? It's another case of wait and see.