MOSCOW, July 24 (R-Sport) – Russian football team CSKA Moscow have confirmed the surprise sale of forward Vagner Love to Chinese side Shandong Luneng.
The move, announced by Shandong earlier Wednesday, came as a shock to many with the 29-year-old considered to be at the peak of his career and three years left to run on his CSKA deal.
"This decision wasn't made easily by the club or Vagner Love," CSKA said in a website statement. "Our forward has been offered unprecedented personal contract terms, and CSKA received a lucrative offer," it said.
A source previously told R-Sport the deal was worth 12 million euros.
The club claimed it still tried to hold onto the player - "we tried to persuade the player's agents to turn down the deal" - but ultimately the offer was too good for both the club and Vagner Love, the statement said.
"A footballer is made such an offer maybe once in a lifetime. Thank you, Vagner, for helping the team win three titles last season, and the best of luck in your career," it added.
Vagner leaves with 124 goals in 269 games for CSKA, stats that make him the Russian Premier League's most prolific foreign goalscorer.
He helped them to the Russian Premier League and cup double last season.
Vagner inked a three-and-a-half-year deal in January, when he returned from a six-month spell with his hometown side Flamengo in Brazil. At the time, he said: “I can assure our fans that I won’t ask to move away any more. I’ll only go when the president says so - that’s enough.”
The deal represents a huge coup for Shandong, who are coached by former Real Madrid, Barcelona and Serbia coach Radomir Antic.
Shandong are looking to recapture the kind of form that saw them take three Chinese Super League titles between 2006 and 2010, finishing 2011 in fifth and 2012 in 12th. Vagner has spent eight seasons at CSKA since 2004, breaking briefly last year to play for Flamengo.
CSKA recently returned from a preseason tour of China.
