BENFICA’S GAME of brinkmanship with Chelsea over the protracted €30 million signing of David Luiz was maintained yesterday afternoon when the Portuguese club released a statement claiming talks between the clubs had concluded with no agreement in place.

The Premier League champions have already settled personal terms for David Luiz, a 23-year-old Brazil centre-half, on a contract worth around €52,000 a week to run until 2015 and secured the player’s work permit on Wednesday. Chelsea’s Serbian midfielder Nemanja Matic was due to move as a makeweight in the deal. However, agreement has proved elusive over how the €30 million fee was to be paid, with Benfica seeking as much of the transfer fee up front as possible.

The defender played all 90 minutes of his club’s Portuguese Cup game at Rio Ave on Wednesday night, risking injury in the process, with the Benfica president, Luis Filipe Vieira, sanctioning the release of a statement yesterday which suggests the deal could now be abandoned.

“Negotiations between Benfica and Chelsea FC, with a view to the possible transfer of David Luiz, were concluded today without the parties having reached an agreement,” it read. “Contrary to reports, David Luiz never tried to force his way out of the club and is a model professional.”

Chelsea still hope the deal can be salvaged, with Benfica’s apparent decision seen as the latest twist in what have been tortuous negotiations.

The Portuguese club’s position is complicated by Luiz being one of a number of players at the Estadio da Luz who are effectively only part-owned by Benfica, a proportion of their economic rights having been sold to the Benfica Stars Fund, a football investment fund set up in 2009 to raise short-term money for the club.

Such deals are relatively common in Portugal but, in Luiz’s case, some 25 per cent of any transfer fee would have to be paid back into the fund, amounting to some €7.5 million, upon completion of the proposed move to London.

With the Lisbon club seeking to recruit again before the closure of the transfer window, the necessity to secure as much as possible of the fee for Luiz up front is understandable.

They were apparently under the impression that Chelsea would pay the entire €30 million up front during discussions with Vieira in London last weekend but, while such arrangements were relatively common in the early days of Roman Abramovich’s ownership, the Premier League side are now more comfortable spreading fees out in instalments.

Guardian Service