Fulham were reportedly one of the clubs who had scouts at the Europa League match between Dinamo Zagreb and Benfica last night.
Although the match happened in Croatia, it’s Portuguese newspaper Record who reports it, without explaining if there were any specific targets for the Cottagers.
The home side won the match 1-0 with a goal scored by Bruno Petkovic, and now have some advantage for the second leg of the round-of-16.
Fulham were linked to only one player from these clubs this year. It was in January, when it was claimed that they had made an offer for the Benfica right-back André Almeida.
Although Almeida is a frequent starter for the Eagles, he didn’t make it to the squad this time. As the player didn’t even travel to Zagreb, we presume Fulham knew about this.
Targeting players from either of the clubs shows there’s some optimism at Fulham ahead of the summer window. Barring a miracle, they’ll be a Championship club by then and players may not be too keen on swapping European football for England’s second division.
Manchester United, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Manchester City, Wolverhampton, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, AC Milan, Napoli, Inter Milan, Sampdoria, Sassuolo, Bordeaux, Lille and Slavia Prague have all sent scouts to this match as well.
