Manchester United fans will remember the Renato Sanches saga, with the then Benfica player being strongly linked to Manchester United for months, before eventually signing for Bayern Munich.
Even though Victor Lindelof has been receiving the gossip attention recently, there has also been strong speculation regarding Nelson Semedo. Besides the constant reports of contacts, there was even a claim a deal between Manchester United and Benfica had already been lined up.
But what’s reported on the front page of O Jogo today is that Bayern Munich would be trying to do the same thing again. Given the announcement of Philipp Lahm’s retirement, the Bavarian club are apparently in a rush to be first to find an agreement.
The first contacts have been made and Benfica would accept to sell the player for €40m. Considering he has a €60m release clause, that’s not a ludicrous amount.
Would we believe this story? Maybe. If Bayern were really caught by surprise with Lahm’s news, a move for a young right-back from a club who they have a good market relationship with is quite possible. Plus their interest had been reported for a while.
But that’s also a very good way for Benfica to make Manchester United hurry up and not lose another player to Bayern Munich.
