Latin American Roundup

Santos youngsters Robinho, Diego not for sale

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -- Brazilian champions Santos said on Tuesday that teenagers Diego and Robinho, rated as the club's hottest properties, were not for sale.

"Robinho and Diego have just completed the first years of five-year contracts," club spokesman Aldo Neto told Reuters. "You can say they are not for sale."

Eighteen-year-old Robinho agreed that it was too early for a move abroad. "I'm very young to leave Brazil. I don't think I'm ready for it," he told Globo television.

Brazilian media are predicting that the club will have a hard time fending off the multimillion dollar offers expected to arrive from European clubs, especially after Robinho's display on Sunday in the final of the Brazilian championship.

Robinho, who taunts and torments defenders with his precocious dribbling, won and converted a penalty, then set up two more goals as Santos beat Corinthians 3-2 to complete a 5-2 aggregate win.

His performance was given rave reviews and had commentators debating whether he bore more resemblance to Pele or Garrincha.

Seventeen-year-old Diego, who wears the Santos number ten shirt which once belonged to Pele, also had an outstanding championship despite hobbling off injured in the first minute of Sunday's final.

Neto said that Real Madrid made a $2 million offer for Diego two years ago, when he was still in the club's youth divisions, but Santos turned it down. He could not put a figure on how much Diego or Robinho might be worth now.

Reinforcements

"I don't know and, in any case, I'm not authorised to say," he said.

Neto said that Santos's priority was next year's Libertadores Cup, when the club will end an 18-year absence from South America's most important club tournament.

"The idea is to keep the side intact for the Libertadores and bring in two or three reinforcements," said Neto.

But Santos still have some negotiating to do.

Coach Emerson Leao, who has resurrected his own career since joining the club in June, is due to meet president Marcelo Teixeira on Wednesday to renew his own contract.

Leao, fired by Brazil in June 2001 after only eight months in charge of the national team, has already warned that he will look elsewhere if agreement is not reached quickly.

Several players have contracts which end in January, including Alberto -- the club's top scorer in the championship with 12 goals -- and left-back Leo, who scored the winning goal on Sunday.

"I want to stay but it depends on the negotiations," said Leo.

Brazil's new sensations to skip Under-20 tournament

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) -- The newest sensations of Brazilian soccer will skip the South American under-20 tournament in Uruguay next month, Santos club officials said Tuesday.

In a radio interview, club president Marcelo Teixeira said Diego and Robinho were injured and wouldn't be ready in time for the tournament.

"Diego has a muscle contracture in his left leg and Robinho has some contusions resulting from the physical game played by Corinthians," Teixeira said.

Robinho, 18, was the hero of Santos' 3-2 win over Corinthians on Sunday, scoring a goal and setting up the other two to give Santos its first national championship since the Pele era.

Diego, the team's 17-year-old playmaker and heir to Pele's No. 10 jersey, was hurt and limped off the pitch in the opening minutes.

Both were named to the team by Ricardo Gomes, the newly appointed coach of Brazil's under-20 team.

The club's director of soccer had a different explanation for their absence.

"We understand that Diego and Robinho already are members of the main national team," Francisco Lopes said in an interview with Pele's Web site, www.pele.net. "They are players who must be preserved, and so they won't play in this tournament."

Argentine teams weigh up offseason transfers

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -- Argentina's championship has ended and, as usual in a country where clubs depend on selling players to survive, teams are busy deciding who will be next on the plane to Europe or Asia.

Boca Juniors and River Plate, the big two clubs from Buenos Aires, are at the forefront of the wheeling and dealing and are both looking to offload players for much-needed hard currency.

River, whose youth divisions produce a seemingly endless supply of raw, young talent, are expected to part company with defender Martin Demichelis and winger Andres D'Alessandro.

German club Bayern Munich said on Monday they had agreed a four-year contract with 21-year-old Demichelis and were hoping he could join them after the Bundesliga's winter break.

D'Alessandro, one of Argentina's brightest young prospects, is expected to follow the path to Europe in June and join Spanish giants Barcelona.

If he does he would retrace the steps of goalkeeper Roberto Bonano and Javier Saviola, who both played at River and are now with the Catalan club.

D'Alessandro is visiting the city on what the media believe to be a reconnaissance trip.

River, who will take part in the South American Libertadores Cup in the first half of next year, are hoping to reinforce their team with Uruguayan international Alejandro Lembo of Montevideo-based Nacional.

"The negotiations are at a very advanced stage," said River president Jose Maria Aguilar.

River, known as the Millionaires, are also reported to be chasing Cameroon striker Pierre Webo, Lembo's team mate at Nacional, Napoli's Claudio Husain and his brother Dario, who plays for local rivals Velez Sarsfield.

Boca Juniors officials say striker Marcelo Delgado could be on his way to play for Japan's Yokohama Marinos, while defender Gustavo Pinto, midfielder Raul Cascini and striker Hector Bracamonte are all being linked with moves to China.

The future of their coach Oscar Tabarez is also uncertain.

Boca have been negotiating with Carlos Bianchi, who led the club to a series of titles -- including successive wins in the Libertadores Cup -- before resigning at the end of last year.

Champions Independiente, who won their first title for eight years at the start of December, also say they need to sell at least one player to balance the books.

"Financially, we need to sell a player but there must be a significant offer before the transfer can materialise," said vice-president Fernando Sciacaluga.

Coach Americo Gallego said after clinching the title two weeks ago that he was resigned to losing top scorer Andres Silvera and defender Gabriel Milito.

Penarol coach Perez resigns

MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) -- Gregorio Perez has resigned as coach of Uruguay's Penarol, the club's Web site said on Tuesday.

Perez had been in charge for a year in his third stint with Uruguay's most successful and popular club.

Penarol -- who have won the Uruguayan title a record 35 times and the South American Libertadores Cup on five occasions -- failed to reach the final of the Uruguayan championship this year and were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Libertadores.

Perez, who also coached the club twice during the 1990s, said he was unhappy at comments made last week by president Jose Pedro Damiani.

"It wasn't that I didn't want to continue at Penarol," Perez told local media. "I understood it was the best thing to do because in the last few days, things happened which I didn't like and which were not handled well."

Penarol have failed to win the Uruguayan championship in any of the last three years. On each occasion, their arch-rivals Nacional have taken the trophy.

 

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Both the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.