Manchester United have been told that they will need to pay €60 million for the 22-year-old described as the ‘Next Bruno Fernandes’.
Manchester United did their best piece of business in recent memory last January when they signed Bruno Fernandes from Sporting CP. The Portuguese playmaker has been an absolute revelation for the Red Devils, transforming them into title contenders within the space of a year.
Not many would have expected him to adjust to the Premier League as quickly as he has, especially coming from the Portuguese League. Safe to say that he has emphatically answered every doubter that he had.
It is not the first time that this has happened though. You might remember a certain Cristiano Ronaldo doing the same thing except that he had arrived as a teenager.
As a result, it is only natural that United would try to repeat one of their favourite tricks and unearth the next big thing from Portugal. And their search appears to have taken them back to Sporting CP, the current home of Pedro Goncalves.
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The 22-year-old central midfielder has scored 11 goals and provided 1 assists in just 11 appearances in Liga NOS. Expectedly, he has drawn comparisons with Fernandes and Manchester United are reportedly also interested in him.
Correio de Manha (via Sport Witness) claim that Sporting CP will refuse to let Goncalves go though. And with his contract running till the summer for 2025, it is not hard to understand why they are not in a hurry.
There is a €60 million release clause in his contract though and if United decided to activate that, they would have no say in the matter. But reports state that even the player does not intend to leave the club in January and is focused on leading Sporting CP to the league title.
Thus, it does look very unlikely that any move will go through in January, although it could be a different story in the summer.