After repeated claims in the Portuguese press, from several newspapers, that a deal was agreed Benfica manager Rui Vitoria has rubbished the club’s interest in buying Sebastian Coates from Sunderland.
The Sunderland owned played moved to Sporting on loan last year, and the Portuguese club have an option to make the move permanent for just €5m. Coates has impressed, and with Sporting waiting to make the deal permanent it’s allowed other clubs to become more interested.
Benfica isn’t one of them, with Vitoria quoted by A Bola as saying: “Neither I nor the president have an interest in hiring Coates. He’s not a target player for us, he’s not on our radar.”
It seems like someone has been pushing stories to wind up Sporting, or maybe the fact there’s no personal terms agreed on the deal yet has seen Coates’ camp encouraging such rumours.
Either way, it may present an opportunity for Sunderland. If Sporting can’t agree terms then Sunderland can sell Coates on the open market, and they’d likely get more than €5m.
