Benfica’s Champions League elimination could have positive repercussions for Leeds United in their alleged pursuit of an Eagles player.
Leeds are one of the clubs being credited with an interest in the midfielder Florentino Luis, for whom the Whites were said to be ‘moving forward with a plan’ after meeting with his agent in July (Tuttomercatoweb).
And, according to Record, Benfica are now being forced to make two ‘big sales’ as a direct result of their failure to qualify for this year’s group stage.
It remains to be seen what sort of figure would count as a ‘big sale’.
It had been suggested, however, that Leeds would have to pay between €20-30million (£18.3-27.5m) for Florentino, whose contract contains a buyout clause of €120m (around £110m).
That does seem a little excessive for a player who has to his name just 32 senior appearances – especially when his preferred role is the same as that of Kalvin Phillips, arguably Leeds’ most influential player.
But, considering Benfica’s apparent need to do business, discounts cannot be ruled out.
And Leeds may wish to revisit their interest, assuming they haven’t already.
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