The decision to cut ties with the Brazilian was announced by the club on Tuesday afternoon.
“Midfielder Evandro will not have his contract renewed with Santos Futebol Clube. The player, who has a contract until the end of this month, has been released to seek new ways.” The club announced via their Twitter account earlier today.
The 33-year-old’s contract with the club is set to expire at the end of June and there will be no further renewals.
As part of his contract when he signed in July 2019, Santos does have the option of choosing to extend Evandro’s contract for another six months. However, the club has decided they will be better off cutting ties with the midfielder.
There were reasons why it made sense for Santos to do away with renewing his contract.
Firstly, Evandro was becoming surplus to options at the club. Under former boss Jorge Sampaoli, the 33-year-old saw decent game-time on the pitch. However, that has not been the same under the new management of coach Jesualdo Ferreira who arrived at the club in January.
Since Jesualdo Ferreira took over at the helm of affairs, the midfielder has only featured five times and has barely been a regular at the club.
Secondly, the signing of Evandro wasn’t all that smooth and came with some financial complications of its own.
As it stands, Santos still needs to resolve a financial dispute with the player’s representatives. The club signed him on a free transfer last July from Hull City and are being accused of not paying the middlemen involved in getting the deal done.
It would make sense for Santos to avoid further complications and take the opportunity to end things with the player. Moreso, the coronavirus pandemic has already put clubs in a delicate situation financially and any attempt to free up wages of any sort would be most welcome.
For Evandro, it might not be long before he finds himself another club. Reports claimed the 33-year-old wanted a stay at Santos but that didn’t stop him from holding talks with Club Athletico Paranaense over a potential move.
Responding to rumors about the above, Santos president José Carlos Peres responded he wasn’t going to stop Evandro from speaking to other sides.
“Our intention is to give opportunity to the promises”, he said.
After 11 months with Santos, Evandro will now be leaving the club at the end of the month. Throughout his stay with the Brazilian side, the midfielder made 20 appearances in total, scoring one goal and supplying five assists.
