After catching everyone by surprise yesterday, the Portuguese media now brings some more details on Erdal Rakip’s transfer to Crystal Palace.
Newspapers like O Jogo and Record are now all confirming the transfer, claiming that the player is already in London, where he should sign for the Selhurst Park side today.
O Jogo adds that despite the news being broken this Thursday, the transfer still wasn’t finalised, even though the conclusion should be ‘effective and speedy’.
Rakip is set to sign a contract until the end of the season with no buying option for Crystal Palace, since Benfica are still confident that he can have a good future in Portugal.
According to O Jogo, the player should be at the Emirates to watch Palace’s game against Arsenal tomorrow, and could be announced a few hours after that.
This sounds like a weird deal for the reason that Rakip has just signed for Benfica. After choosing not to renew for his club Malmo, the player moved to Portugal on a free transfer, having joined the Eagles (the Portuguese ones) in the first days of the year.
But manager Rui Vitória didn’t want to include him in the squad. The papers claim that at this stage of the season, he only want signings who will really add something to the team, and with many options for the midfield position, Rakip can’t help much.
That’s why Benfica’s idea is to let him play somewhere else, and they even considered other options they had, like loaning him to Braga and Vitória de Guimarães, although the Premier League always has an advantage in these cases.
Rakip is expected to have a chance for Benfica once the spell at Crystal Palace is over, so he can go through preseason with the Lisbon side.
