Everton take interest in €45m defender one step further as officials sent to watch him in action

This Thursday, Portuguese newspaper A Bola has a story saying that Everton scouts were at the Estádio de Alvalade two days ago.

The reason why the officials were sent would be to watch the Sporting defender Rúben Semedo, who didn’t have a very good match against Borussia Dortmund.

A Bola claims the Everton emissaries took notes from every move from the player, who failed to stop Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang during Dortmund’s first goal.

The newspaper describes Semedo’s performance saying he had an ‘unusual insecurity’ and claims that Everton have watched him enough time to know his qualities.

We just love the coincidence that Everton went to watch Semedo in the very same day their interest was reported.

We covered the news, broken by CalcioMercato, who had a short note about it, and didn’t make much noise saying it’s an exclusive as they normally do.

We had never seen Everton linked to Semedo before, so we found it quite strange at the time. Especially because these reports normally come from Portugal, not Italy.

On the other hand, the player was also linked to Southampton at the end of last season, when the now Everton manager Ronald Koeman was still in charge of the Saints.

A Bola is the only paper reporting this scouting today. Record mentions CalcioMercato’s article, but with no news about Everton officials at Alvalade.

Ruben Semedo has a €45m release clause and a contract running until 2022. He’s still to feature for Portugal’s first team.