Jonathan Viera joins Beijing Guoan on three-year deal
The Las Palmas midfielder has finally seen his move to CSL go through, with the club pocketing €23m and the player an annual salary of €6m plus add-ons.
Jonathan Viera has officially signed for Chinese Super League Beijing Guoan from Las Palmas for a fee of around 23 million euros after the Liga club’s president, Miguel Ángel Ramírez, and his counterpart Li Ming reached an agreement.
The move will being Viera’s second spell at his hometown club to an immediate close, with the CSL side transferring the player’s rights this week.
Ramírez: "In sporting terms this is a terrible deal"
Ramírez explained on Las Palmas’ official website that although the club had not wished to sell Viera as they battle relegation: “It is impossible to compete with the amounts they are offering. The solution was for Jonathan to leave in the summer but they would not accept that, so I had to find the best possible formula so that we suffered as little damage as possible. I’m not satisfied with the deal, I have felt oblige to look for a solution and while economically we have received what we wanted in sporting terms this is a terrible deal.”
Las Palmas make tidy profit on Viera
Viera signed a non-disclosure agreement regarding the financial side of the deal but it has been widely reported that Beijing Guoan offered 23 million euros, although the player's buy-out officially stands at 30 million. When Las Palmas re-signed Viera from Standard Liege in 2015, the fee was 900,000 euros.
Viera was the club’s third-highest scorer and second most-used player in 2017-18 and a key part of Paco Jémez’s team. Although Las Palmas secured a 30-percent cut of any future sale, there is little doubt that Viera’s departure with the European window shut until the summer is a huge blow to the club, and more given that the player was born in Gran Canaria.
However, Ramírez thanked Viera for his professionalism and dedication to the cause after he took a pay cut to rejoin from Liege and noted that the club "cannot ruin the life of one of our own."
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