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Brighton & Hove Albion are still leading the race for the Ludogorets winger Jonathan Cafu, Sport Witness understands. The Seagulls have made an approach for the player in late May, and despite the delay in formalising an offer, no other clubs could attract the Brazilian more.

Sporting and Lyon are also in the fight, with the Portuguese side’s interest being taken more seriously, as they have a meeting scheduled to discuss the signing in the next week.

And in the past few weeks, another English club joined the competition. Newcastle  United initiated contact to learn the possibility of a deal. Rafael Benitez interest makes sense, but there’s been no advance on the Newcastle interest, it hasn’t yet been taken further than the initial stage, like a lot of potential St James’ Park arrivals this summer.

Cafu’s priority is to move to the Premier League. And with Brighton being the most convinced to take him to England, they remain in front for now. That could change if Newcastle do something more serious about their interest.

Ludogorets’ squad is currently in Austria for preseason training, and the club is likely to start taking care of the process when they return to Bulgaria.

They continue to demand the €12m release clause to let the player go, and clubs wanting to negotiate this figure down is why the situation continues to drag on.