Brazil's Juninho finished at Sydney FC, reports

sábado, 12 de abril de 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) - Financial pressures have squeezed former Brazilian international Juninho out of Australian A-League club Sydney FC, reports said Saturday.

Juninho, 35, who played 50 times for his country from 1995 to 2003 and was the first Brazilian national team player to play in Australia on a full-time basis, had an injury-plagued season, making just 15 appearances for Sydney.

But Juninho's time looked up when the club signed Socceroo striker John Aloisi and three other well-credentialled A-League players, Simon Colosimo, Mark Bridge and Stuart Musialik for next season.

Sydney FC coach John Kosmina has confirmed that a deal to keep Juninho was dead.

"It's done and dusted and there are no longer any plans for him to play for us anymore," Kosmina told Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

"Obviously, the marquee position wasn't available so we put an offer to him that would've put him inside the salary cap, but we couldn't come to terms and it's time to move on.

"We tried to keep him, we put a proposal to him that was not unattractive but it wasn't marquee status financially."

Juninho's manager Leo Karis said a new contract was briefly discussed but it went no further.


"For a brief moment there appeared to be genuine interest in retaining his services but at no time was a formal offer put to us," Karis said.

www.soccernews.com