A move that would have sent Richarlison back to Everton collapsed just before the transfer deadline. The forward said he’d wanted the return but felt the process was shaped by other parties’ agendas rather than his own.
Since that fell through, he’s been dropped from Tottenham’s 25-man Premier League roster, though he still trains with the squad. Now a switch to Vasco da Gama in Brazil looks dead too.
Vasco deal now off the table
Vasco, a storied name in Brazilian football, had pushed hard to land Richarlison before their own window shut on September 11. Per O Globo, the club couldn’t meet Spurs’ valuation and tried instead to persuade him to walk away from his contract. Reportedly, Vasco floated an unconventional setup: a long-term deal paid out in installments, where another club could inherit those payments if he moved on again after this season — plus a bigger signing bonus and a cut of any future transfer fee.
Such a signing would have been a big deal for Brazilian soccer, echoing Neymar’s return to Santos, his boyhood club, last year. But the latest word from Globo is that Richarlison turned down Vasco’s long-term offer, and the club has now scrapped the pursuit entirely.
That leaves Richarlison looking set to stay at Spurs through the rest of 2026. A Saudi Pro League switch had also been floated, but that market shut on September 6.
The contract-termination question
Whether Richarlison could legally exit his contract is murky. FIFA generally bars players from joining a new club after terminating a contract outside a transfer window — unless certain exceptions apply.
Global Sports Advocates notes that CAS leans on Swiss labor-law concepts to judge whether a termination counts as having “just cause.” Grounds include repeated unpaid wages, inadequate training facilities, or breaches of other core contract terms — the last of which can cover situations like a player being deregistered or shut out of domestic competition, which is relevant here since Richarlison’s Premier League squad omission limits him to domestic cup football until at least January.
There’s a relevant precedent: Renan Lodi tore up his Al Hilal contract last September after being left off their squad list, then joined Atletico Mineiro in Brazil (though not until late December). Al Hilal confirmed at the time it had received formal notice from Lodi’s representatives of the termination.
FIFA’s rule on this
Article 6 of FIFA’s player-status regulations, revised in January 2025, allows a player who terminates “with just cause” — or whose club terminates without just cause — to register with a new club outside the transfer window. FIFA’s general secretariat is required to quickly make a preliminary call on whether the termination had just cause and approve or reject registration on that basis, though that initial read doesn’t prejudge any final ruling on the termination’s consequences.
