As he's Venezuelan, will he need a work permit or does he qualify to play in Europe some other way?
It looks like he's been on the bench for Zenit's first 3 league games of the season, despite scoring 20 goals in 44 games for them last season. He did play in 3 games at COPA 2015 in June though.
He should/may qualify for a permit if these articles are anything to go by.
(Ed' at 13:02: unless he already qualifies via an EU passport which I meant to type in earlier
)
Taken from the Metro when Rondon was linked to both Liverpool and Spurs in March:
“The 25-year-old would qualify for a work permit as
he is a regular in the Venezuela team with 12 goals in 36 games for his countryâ€.
Article linked below:
http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/01/tottenham-hotspur-and-liverpool-plot-transfer-raid-on-zenit-saint-petersburgs-salomon-rondon-5058239/Meanwhile the criteria for work permits’ from none EU countries states:
“1. A player must have played for his country in
at least 75% of its competitive A team matches of which he was available for selection,
during the two years preceding the date of the
application2. The player’s country must be at or above
70th place in the official FIFA world rankings when averaged over the two years preceding the date of the
applicationâ€.
Source linked below:
http://www.inbrief.co.uk/football-law/footballer-work-permits.htmVenezuela’s
current world ranking is 48:
http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/associations/association=ven/men/index.htmlThe 'only' fly in the ointment is that according to the attached ranking chart
Venezuela were ranked 88 last year. However,
this was the only time in which they have dropped from the top 70 of world rankings since 2006 so 'may' be taken into account perhaps. Either that, or this is the reason the 'big' boys have not bid for him thus far perhaps!?!
Hope this helps.
.