Rafael Leão may be just 18, and still not a fancy player yet, but he’s got quite a lot of media attention in the past few days.
The first reason for that is the teenager made his league debut for Sporting last weekend. He had only played a cup game before it, and that was in November, so Sunday’s match was quite special for him.
Then the transfer rumours started. Earlier this week, the English press claimed that Manchester City are interested in him, as Pep Guardiola’s side are said to have been monitoring the youngster for at least a couple of months. There were even claims Manchester City would be ready to spend €25m on the youngster.
This news arrived to Portugal as a surprise, since the local outlets seemed to have no info on it, so they didn’t even give much attention to the chase.
But in Sporting’s pre-match press conference this Wednesday, there were some interesting words from manager Jorge Jesus on the Manchester City target. The boss was asked if Leão will continue having chances in the next important games, and was quite honest about it.
“He had the first chance. During these two months with the professional team, he has been doing a specific job that is not tactical, it’s more physical and technical, to involve several factors that we consider important, because he has talent,” Jesus said (via Record).
“We will not make up that he is a player already. He has much to learn. He had a chance, he will stop having and will have it again. He will be prepared step by step, very carefully, because we know the value of him and his colleagues in the same position.”
It definitely looks like Sporting see a future for Rafael Leão at the club, and want to be patient. That would make things quite hard for Manchester City to get him, and even if they do, it should still take a few years until the youngster is ready for the Premier League challenge.
