Rumour Mongering: Barcelona, Liverpool, and a Dozen Others Want Emerson

It’s the transfer window, which means that the fans get to learn about players from far-flung leagues that their club is probably never actually going to sign and that in all likelihood they didn’t know existed—and might not ever hear about again.

Today, it’s Atletico Mineiro’s Emerson on the menu, a highly regarded 20-year-old right back who is being linked with more than a dozen European clubs back home in Brazil, and with some European outlets now starting to pick up on the story.

It’s Spain’s Mundo Deportivo doing the heavy lifting amplifying the rumour, with Barcelona’s supposed interest headlining—and everyone from Liverpool, Arsenal, Juventus, Inter, and Dortmund to Shakhtar, Porto, Lille, and Real Betis also interested.

They even claim that the player’s agent has confirmed to them that Barcelona, Liverpool, Juventus, and all the rest are in fact interested, which manages to be both a point in favour of there being some legitimacy to this story and further reason to doubt it.

After all, if anyone should know who’s interested it would be the agent. But also if anyone has a vested interest in earning Emerson a move to Europe such that they might go around dropping names to try to drum up interest, well, it’d be the agent.

It’s clear, though, that a move to Europe is what Emerson wants, and it’s possible Liverpool are an interested party. With a list of supposed suitors as long as this, though, it’s probably safe to say any deal that does get done isn’t getting done tomorrow.