Jose Cifuentes Cruzeiro debut planned but ace still at Rangers amid delay
Jose Cifuentes is expected to make his debut for Cruzeiro next Sunday (18 February) but the Rangers player hasn’t even left Glasgow yet amid delays, according to the Scottish Sun.
The paper reported via their website on 6 February that the midfielder has been lined up to play his first game for the Brazilian side next weekend against Democrata, but amid “red tape” he won’t arrive in the country until a few days before.
Brazilian employment law dictates that he must travel via his home nation of Ecuador to complete paperwork, but he isn’t even due to leave Scotland for South America until Friday (9 February).
Cifuentes is apparently now set to be presented in Brazil next Thursday (15 February), with “plenty of time” still left for Cruzeiro to get the move done before the close of their Brazilian transfer window on 7 March.
Carnival in Belo Horizonte has separately been named as a complicating factor, although that is not set to end until the day of his suggested debut.
Cifuentes exit from Rangers must overcome delaying factors
A planned debut in just over a week and a half seems ambitious when the formalities of the move need to be settled and he hasn’t yet left the UK.
For all intents and purposesthe deal appears to be done, but until it is officially announced there remains the outside possibility that something causes it to fall through.
The sooner the better for the 24-year-old as he is currently left to keep turning up for work at Rangers despite not being part of the picture any more.
He will have to hope that the hoops he is needing to jump through prove to be worth it and he can hit the ground running in Brazil better than he was able to in Scotland.
The former LAFC man arrived midway through the MLS season so in theory he should have been at full fitness and ready to go straight away once Michael Beale got him in at Ibrox, but it ultimately didn’t help him establish himself in the SPFL.
He now follows fellow struggling summer signing Sam Lammers in leaving the club again on loan at the first opportunity.
In other Rangers news, Lawrence Shankland admits he’s got “a lot to consider” after rejecting Hearts contract offers.
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