Most of the time Portuguese newspapers have an article about Gelson Martins, there are two things they never forget to mention: his first Champions League game against Real Madrid and the name of the big clubs who follow him.
As Sporting are preparing themselves for the game against Zinedine Zidane’s tonight, there was a good chance to make another story.
Martins had a great performance at the Santiago Bernabeu for the first fixture of the group stage, which attracted the interest from several big clubs.
So in its Monday edition, Record claims that Manchester United, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, PSG and Bayern Munich will all send emissaries to Lisbon so they can watch the player again.
The presence of scouts from these clubs is normal for Champions League matches, but Record still insist that they’ll be there especially to watch Martins.
The 21-year-old is the only player from the squad who played every single match this season, having two goals and seven assists in 16 games.
As mentioned by the Portuguese media a few times, Manchester United have scouted him in all these matches, meaning the interest looks strong. Even the Spanish press got involved this week, with claims on Monday that Jose Mourinho has been trying to ‘seduce’ the player to sign for Manchester United.
But all the clubs who want him should remember that the player has a €60m release clause and Sporting are unlikely to sell him for much less. A contract renewal is also on the cards, which could raise this price to €80m.
Games like this against Real Madrid are those which show if the player is worth anything approaching that amount of money or not, so this match should be interesting to watch. If he plays well, the Portuguese press are going to go into orbit on this rumour.
