On Thursday morning, Sport Witness were the first to bring claims from Portugal that Leeds United are in talks for Tobias Figueiredo.
A Bola explained Leeds United and Sporting had commenced talks over the 23 year central defender, and it was thought a deal could be done for €3-4m.
The Portuguese newspaper made a point of saying no other clubs had been in contact about signing Figueiredo, giving Leeds United a free run at the player.
Sport Witness’ scouting records show Leeds have been at Sporting recently, but they’ve not got to see the player properly as he’s that far out of the first team picture.
However, Figueiredo has been representing Sporting B and it looks like a match on Saturday was the trigger for talks. Sporting faced Porto B and the defender started the match which his side went on to win 3-0, with Figueiredo receiving a rash of positive reports.
Yes, even though it’s Sporting B v Porto B, it’s still worthy of almost full page coverage across all the Portuguese sport outlets.
O Jogo picked out several players for special praise, the ‘highlights’ of the match, and right at the top of their list was Tobias Figueiredo.
This is what they said: ‘He was left behind, without ceremony, by Galeno in the only stain during a immaculate and muscular performance’.
The ending of that sentence is quite some piece of praise. Figueiredo isn’t thought to be ready for Sporting’s first team on a regular basis, but there does seem to be something there, a raw talent to develop.
Whether Leeds United and the Championship would be the best place to develop that talent is a complete unknown, so a potential gamble for all involved.
