If there’s a new player that Manchester United fans got to know in the past couple of weeks, that’s definitely Mile Svilar.
The Benfica goalkeeper first received attention for making his Champions League debut at the age of 18. Then he was unfortunate to score own goals in both matches against the Red Devils in the Champions League.
But despite the bad luck, and clear lack of experience on the first occasion, Svilar still shows a lot of potential, with the support of Benfica not changing after these two matches.
And it seems there’s still more than that. Because, according to the Portuguese press today, Manchester United are interested in bringing him to the Premier League in the future.
There are two newspapers saying basically the same thing. Record claims that José Mourinho told Benfica representatives that he will ‘stay attentive’ to the player after the good performance the youngster had at Old Trafford.
The newspaper claims that Svilar’s spell at Benfica ‘could be shorter than expected’, because Mourinho is a ‘usual client’ at the Portuguese club. And after buying Victor Lindelof last summer, Alex Grimaldo and Mile Svilar could be next.
We can take this as just a transfer rumour, but the interesting part is that there’s the same story in Correio da Manhã, actually in a more detailed version.
The initial info is the same: José Mourinho told Benfica about his admiration for the goalkeeper. But there are two new names mentioned.
First: the man who Mourinho spoke to is Luis Filipe Vieira, the Benfica president. The manager talked about how good Svilar is and his ‘good relationship’ with the Eagles could make a future deal easier.
And there’s another person who spoke to the club president, none other than Sir Bobby Charlton.
The Manchester United legend is said to be ‘impressed’ with Svilar’s performance and ‘showed his admiration’ when speaking to Vieira after Tuesday’s game.
It’s also claimed Mourinho has ‘reserved’ the player.
With two stories coming out like this, there’s definitely something in there. But could it be that Mourinho and Sir Bobby just showed their admiration, and never talked about a transfer? That’s very possible, perhaps likely.
Maybe Manchester United interest is being talked up to help up the standing of the young goalkeeper.
