Transfer system seems quite erratic save by save this year. If you go on the si forums for instance there's plenty of people starting saves with the same club and having massive different transfer opportunities even just within the first days of the save. It was an Australian team that signed him on mine - not sure if having that league on makes any difference
I suppose thats a good thing as on previous versions of the game the same teams would buy the same players. Makes it a bit more unpredicatable.