A player who left Wolverhampton Wanderers for next-to-nothing now has ‘top clubs lurking’, according to Record.
And the level of interest is such at his new employers are said to understand it will be very difficult to keep him – even with a buyout clause of €60 million (around £53.7m) to protect them.
Pedro ‘Pote’ Goncalves only played once in his two years at Wolves, despite impressing for the club’s Under-23s.
And he was allowed to return to his native Portugal with Famalicao last summer, without a transfer fee.
Luckily, Wolves were not left completely empty-handed, after inserting a sell-on clause into the deal, the club’s academy head Scott Sellars told the Birmingham Mail earlier this year.
And they received an undisclosed amount when Pote made a £7m move to Sporting in the summer transfer window, after a season in which he scored or assisted 15 times in 40 games for Famalicao.
He has already had a direct role in 10 Sporting goals in his eight appearances this campaign, evoking comparisons with Bruno Fernandes – the Manchester United midfielder he has effectively replaced at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
Fernandes is reported to have earned the Portuguese giants £62m (around €69.2m), so a similar amount for Pote is not inconceivable.
Whether or not Wolves had the foresight to get in on a future sale, though, remains to be seen.
Who knows, they might even be the ones who end up buying him.
Wolves fans – could you ever imagine a rise like this for Pote?
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