Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Juventus all scouted Oliver Sarkic in 2014 – and now he’s on his way to Leeds United.
The transfer window may have closed on Thursday night but Leeds United have still found the time to add yet another new face to their increasingly cosmopolitan squad.
Futbol Mercado reports that Leeds have added highly-rated Montenegrin striker Oliver Sarkic to their Under-23 squad while the 20-year-old himself retweeted a picture seemingly confirming the news.
Sarkic is the fourth striker to arrive in Leeds’ reserves from abroad this summer, following in the footsteps of Ousama Siddiki, Kun Temenuzhkov and Adrian Balboa. However, if you judge by previous interest in his services, Sarkic may be the most talented of the lot.
The report claims that Benfica pulled off quite the coup landing the then-16-year-old as major European giants a la Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Juventus and Sevilla were all interested in the Montenegrin after scouting him extensively during his development years in Belgium.
And interest from the Premier League duo is an indication of Sarkic’s talents, with both Tottenham and Liverpool renowned for their ability to identify young talents and give them the opportunity to prove their worth in the first-team.
You could argue that no team in the Premier League could better Spurs and Liverpool when it comes to scouting and identifying highly-rated youngsters.
In the end, however, Benfica got their man, though a record of seven goals in 61 appearances for the club’s B team leaves a lot to be desired. And Leeds will be hoping that Spurs and Liverpool were right when they saw Sarkic as one of Europe’s most exciting talents.
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