Santiago Baños has said on the record that Club América are unlikely to make Raphael Veiga’s move permanent, and that the club will go back into the market for a midfielder in December. Speaking to TUDN’s Línea de 4 before Sunday’s match against Pachuca, the América president confirmed the No. 8 role in his squad is still unfilled.
“Yes, a midfielder, a No. 8,” Baños said. “We came up short with that signing in the last window.”
He then named the two players the club failed to land in the summer. “Unfortunately, the opportunity with Luis Chávez came up, and the opportunity with Nelson Deossa, and we were not able to close either of them for different reasons,” he said. “But now in December we will try, if not those two, then someone else who can come in and fill that hole so that we are complete.”
On Veiga, Baños addressed both the player’s immediate future and his longer-term one. “It is complicated for many reasons,” he said. “He went to Brazil to have the operation. He will return for the Liguilla, to be with the squad.”
That return is to the group, not to the pitch. Veiga is recovering in São Paulo after the shoulder surgery América announced on Friday, and neither club has given any timeline for him to play again.
The permanent deal is where Baños was most direct. “The purchase is a complicated matter because he is not a cheap player, and he also hits our wage bill hard,” he said. “It is difficult. There look to be few chances that he can stay.”
Veiga is on loan from Palmeiras, and his future has been an open question since the surgery announcement. Baños has now answered it as clearly as a club president can without closing the door completely, and he has told América fans exactly where the club will shop in December instead.
