Teixeira “Still Dreams” of Liverpool

Alex Teixeira, for a time, looked a near lock to end up at Liverpool. The club had offered a hefty transfer fee for the uncapped Brazilian attacker, and by many reports were willing to raise their opening bid above the £30M mark to get a deal done. The player meanwhile was publicly agitating for the move.

Shakhtar Donestk, though, stood firm on a valuation nearer £40M. Liverpool were willing to negotiate, but the Ukrainians weren’t. The deal fell through and that looked to be it until summer. Then, a surprise bid by Jiangsu Suning took him to the Chinese Super League. According to confidants, though, he still dreams of an England move.

"I spoke to Alex and he said that things were well advanced," Teixeira’s friend and Fenerbahce midfielder Josef de Souza told Esporte Interativo. "He still keeps that dream, from what he told me, in his heart. Of course he wanted to play for Liverpool, to play in the Premier League, but it happened. Football has these things."

Teixeira by all accounts wanted a move to England that would pay well while giving him top quality football and a chance to prove he belonged in the Brazilian national team. A move to China will pay him well—better than the Premier League would have, even—but it won’t get him consideration from his country.

With no guarantee Liverpool would come back for him in the summer, though, or that if they or some other big club did Shakhtar would be any more willing to negotiate, he faced a choice between a sure thing and a dream. He took the sure thing, and with reports that sure thing included a wage of £150k per week after tax, it’s hard to blame him.

"I think it was good for him, good for his family," added de Souza. "Our careers are very short, and the more you can combine one thing with the other—play in a good league and earn money—that’s great. But if you can’t put the two together, it’s obvious that filling your pockets will speak much louder."