It’s now time for Manchester City to be linked to Nelson Semedo from Benfica. After Manchester United and Bayern Munich were credited with serious interest in the player, O Jogo is claiming Pep Guardiola’s side have opened talks for the signing as well.
Benfica president Luis Filipe Vieira was in Turin last night watching the Champions League match, and that’s where he met the Manchester City director Txiki Begiristain.
Pep Guardiola is said to be a long time admirer of the right-back, and most of the story is based on quotes from early 2016 when he called Semedo and Renato Sanches “fantastic players”.
Bayern signed Sanches at the time, but did not buy Semedo because of the €40m demanded by Benfica.
Semedo is said to be Manchester City’s second option, as the club think it will be impossible to bring the Arsenal right-back Hector Bellerin.
Earlier this month, Bayern Munich were said to be thrown out of the race as they only wanted to pay €20m for Semedo. That would leave Jose Mourinho and Manchester United with a free run, but that’s not what’s happening according to this latest report.
Along with the city rivals, the newspaper claims there’s now competition from Barcelona as well. The Catalans would have Bellerin, Semedo and João Cancelo on their list for the summer.
Semedo has a €60m release clause, so it’s very likely Benfica will keep holding him until they get the figures they want.
Claiming interest from the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Barcelona may sound like they’d have a chance of getting a huge fee, but it doesn’t necessarily make it true.
Manchester United have scouted in Portugal for some years, increasing that under Mourinho, leading to repeated Benfica links. Over at Manchester City, the same is starting to happen for Guardiola, with the manager credited with interest in several Benfica players this season.
