Liverpool have ‘already made contact’ with Benfica star Enzo Fernández about a move, with the Portuguese club very much expecting a sale in the coming months.
That’s according to Record, who cover the developing situation around the midfielder today amid claims Liverpool have pre-agreed a deal with him.
That claim comes from Spain, where they insist that Liverpool are battling with Real Madrid for Fernández’s signature and have managed to get a pre-agreement in place with the Argentine.
Record do not confirm as much but say that Liverpool and Real Madrid have ‘already made contact’ for the highly rated youngster.
They explain that both clubs had been targeting Jude Bellingham but his €150m price tag is a problem and has made them look for other options.
Fernández is the ‘most appealing’ of those other options after his performances for Benfica this season, which have been ‘increasingly proving’ he is ready for the top level.
Benfica will not make it easy for Fernández to leave but are aware it will be very difficult to keep a player who is building a reputation and earning himself admirers around Europe.
No one at the club is expecting him to leave in January and the plan is to make like as difficult as possible in negotiations and insist his €120m release clause be met.
According to the newspaper, Benfica chief Rui Costa and his peers ‘will do everything they can’ to keep one of either Fernández or Gonçalo Ramos, who is also being coveted after his hat-trick for Portugal against Switzerland.
The key part with Fernández is that his former club, River Plate, still own 25% of the player’s registration and so will be due that amount of any total sale value should he depart.
That is one of the reasons Benfica are keen to ramp up his price as much as possible and make the likes of Liverpool dig deep into their pockets.
