For £53m, Tottenham will hope Rafael Leao follows in Ballon D’Or winners’ footsteps

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The latest winger to emerge from Sporting Lisbon’s academy, Rafael Leao, is wanted by Premier League duo Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur.

Sporting Lisbon can lay claim to boasting one of the most prosperous academies in world football. A staggering 10 of the 14 players used by Portugal in their Euro 2016 final win against France represented the club at one point in their career, but there is one position above all that the Lions specialise in; wingers.

Ricardo Quaresma, Nani, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo and Gelson Martins all honed their wondrous talent at the Estadio Jose Alvalade – so it is perhaps no surprise that 18-year-old Rafael Leao is attracting so much attention despite playing just 81 minutes of league football in his career.

Arab News claimed in February that Manchester City had offered £22 million for a winger likened to the one-and-only Kylian Mbappe, while according to Calciomercato, PSG and Tottenham Hotspur are both interested.

Now, Spurs’ interest is intriguing. After all, Mauricio Pochettino is one of the world’s leading managers when it comes to talent development with Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen, Toby Alderweireld and co all owing their current world-class status to their Argentine tactician.

So just imagine what he could do with Leao. The problem is, however, with a £53 million release clause in his contract, the Portugal U21 ace would not come cheap.

So if Spurs do splash out, they will be hoping that Leao does indeed have the talent to follow in the footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Figo, arguably the two greatest Iberian talents of their respective generations who won six Ballon d’Or crowns between them.