Lille’s Ligue 1 forward Rafael Leao is now a Jorge Mendes client and this opens the door for Wolverhampton Wanderers to bring him to the Premier League.
Wolverhampton Wanderers have joined the race to sign coveted Lille forward Rafael Leao after the ‘Portuguese Kylian Mbappe’ joined forces with super-agent Jorge Mendes, according to the CM Jornal.
Everyone is talking about Leao right now and with good reason.
The speedy forward has played just one full season of first-team football after leaving Sporting Lisbon for Lille last summer but he is already starting to justify comparisons with PSG’s World Cup winner Mbappe thanks to his rapid pace and ruthless finishing.
Sporting’s former youth coach, Tiago Fernandes, even claimed that Leao was better than a young Cristiano Ronaldo when rising through the ranks at the Estadio Jose Alvalade, speaking to L’Equipe.
No wonder clubs from all across Europe are queuing up to sign one-half of Lille’s much-admired forward pair. Leao might not have found the net as prolifically as Nicolas Pepe last season but that hasn’t stopped Juventus, Inter Milan and Valencia from allegedly eyeing a 20-year-old who is already valued in excess of £31 million.
Interestingly, Leao has joined Ronaldo and co at Jorge Mendes’ Gestifute agency and CM Jornal believes that this rather eye-catching development has catapulted him into Wolves’ sights.
Mendes has an excellent relationship with Wolves’ owners, helping to bring Joao Moutinho, Rui Patricio and Ruben Neves to Molineux in recent years though Leao would be the most ambitious, an expensive, addition since Fosun International took control in 2016.
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