Lucas Assadi has an exit clause at Universidad de Chile and could leave if a club pays it

There's a clause in Lucas Assadi's contract that everyone at Universidad de Chile knew about, but until now it seemed like fine print. That changed over the weekend. Azul Azul president Cecilia Pérez acknowledged that the midfielder could leave the club, and that single admission set off alarm bells on Cerro San Cristóbal, right as the team had been rounding into form.

The man tasked with calming things down, or at least explaining the situation, was sporting director Manuel Mayo, who spoke during the presentation of new signing Igor Lichnovsky. That's where the first awkward contradiction comes in: Chile's transfer window is already closed, so if Assadi leaves, there's no way to replace him.

For us, especially with the transfer window closed in Chile, the sporting side is what matters most. There's no way to replace players. The team and Lucas are doing very well, and the idea is not to weaken the squad. We'd rather keep things as they are and keep improvingManuel Mayo

Mayo himself confirmed how the situation came about: when Assadi renewed his contract, an exit clause was included at the player's own request. In other words, there's not much the club can do if a club shows up willing to pay it and the midfielder decides it's time to make the jump.

"It's true that when Lucas renewed, a clause was added to his contract at his request. If an interested club comes in and is willing to pay it, and the player wants to go, there's nothing we can do as a club. Even though we don't want to weaken the squad and we want him to stay," explained the sporting director, in a tone that sounded more like resignation than surprise.

Mayo went further, framing the issue in terms any fan can understand: at 20 years old, a player wants to stay at the club he loves, but he also wants to keep developing and, along the way, improve his financial situation. He acknowledged that those conversations with Assadi are already happening behind the scenes.

Departures and arrivals: the other side of the market

Not everything revolves around Assadi. The club also settled the departure of Franco Calderón, who left on loan to Independiente after failing to find consistent minutes in a squad that also had a surplus of center backs. "He wasn't playing as much as he expected, we were left with a large number of center backs on the roster, and this move was positive for everyone. We wish him all the success," Mayo said.

At the same time, the U wrapped up three signings: Lichnovsky himself, along with Argentines Gonzalo Reyna and Tobías Reinhart. On the defender, Mayo highlighted his speed despite his height, his clean distribution out of the back and his aggressiveness in marking, traits that coach Gago had specifically requested.

The sporting director's overall assessment was upbeat despite the injuries that hit the squad throughout the season. "The squad was very good, we had bad luck with a lot of injuries, but we have very important players and high quality reinforcements. Gago is satisfied with what we brought in now. We believe we had a good transfer window," Mayo concluded, leaving the door open for the Assadi chapter to be resolved in the coming weeks.