Stoke City made approach for coveted Portuguese manager earlier in the year

It looks like besides Everton, Stoke City were another English club who have made an attempt to sign manager Rui Vitória from Benfica.

The approach was revealed by agent César Boaventura, who had been dealing with taking these calls and negotiating with the Eagles.

There’s been a tape leaked in Portugal where Boaventura and the Benfica president Luis Felipe Vieira were chatting about Vitória’s possible departure from the Eagles in late 2017.

The conversation did not mention Stoke City at first, but still, explaining himself to TVI24, Boaventura ended up revealing the Potters’ interest in the Benfica manager in 2018.

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“[Everton] offered 7 million for Rui Vitória, but Vieira said that the coach was part of the project and that he did not accept it. This call was in December and we never talked about it again”, Boaventura told TVI24 about the Everton approach (via Observador).

“After a few months, Stoke City asked for Rui Vitoria and I phoned the president to inform him that there would be a meeting in England. Vieira said: ‘Do not go, you will waste your time, Rui Vitoria is the coach for this project“.

Luis Filipe Vieira is protected by Benfica with a €15m release clause. From what we’ve read in the past days, the Eagles only wanted to negotiate him with Everton so they could have a free path to take Marco Silva from Watford. Since Stoke City only contacted them a few months later, there was no reason to let Vitória go at that stage.