The Atletico San Luis forward himself, Italian Joao Pedro, was never on Cruz Azul's radar as a reinforcement for the current Clausura 2026 tournament, the striker told ESPN on Thursday, because an offer never came in. A very good offer that they were expecting from the Sky Blues.

To put it simply, the Cementeros' management refused to break the bank to offer him a contract of almost $12 million for three years, as the desired player, in addition to paying a high buyout clause, so he decided to stay at Atletico San Luis.

This came on the eve of the confrontation that Joao Pedro will have with the players who could have been his teammates had an agreement been reached between both managements that would have benefited the player, who had recently rejected an offer from Pisa of Serie A.

The striker acknowledged that his signing with the La Noria team was never close to being finalized and reiterated that he always wanted to stay with Atletico, which is why he refused to return to Italy, as he will do when his football career ends.

“So when I rejected Pisa, I made the decision to stay at Atletico San Luis and when I returned to Atletico In San Luis, the transfer window was still open. they were held, but no agreement was reached. I didn't force anything; I told him from the beginning that, given how well things were going here, it would have to be a very, very good offer,” he stated.

The striker acknowledged that returning to Italy would have been special for him, but his commitment to Atletico San Luis was greater, and therefore he didn't consider signing with Cruz Azul unless it was a very good offer. “A very good offer didn't come. It was almost like a normal thing; we didn't reach an agreement," he concluded.

As you may recall, the possible signing of Joao Pedro dominated newspaper headlines for a week, and Cruz Azul's management was accused of not wanting to invest in the top scorer of the previous tournament.along with Portuguese player Paulinho from Toluca and Armando “Hormiga” Gonzalez from Chivas, but in the end, no agreement was reached and Joao Pedro decided to stay with the mining team. Meanwhile, Cruz Azul decided to focus their efforts on Nicolas Ibanez from Tigres, and in the end, an agreement was reached, even setting aside an offer from America that had previously reached the Tigres striker, who came to Mexican football to play for Atletico San Luis.