Tottenham spent much of the summer being linked with Andreas Schjelderup, but there is now a bigger reason to keep an eye on his Benfica situation.
The Norwegian has changed agents and signed with Gestifute, the company led by Jorge Mendes. That alone would be worth noting after the transfer talk surrounding him of course. But the timing makes it quite interesting.
Schjelderup has lost his starting place at Benfica this season. Last season, he played more than 2,400 minutes across 40 matches, scoring nine goals and adding five assists.
And his contract situation hasn’t been sorted either. Benfica have been trying to extend a deal which currently runs until 2028.
Add Mendes to all of that and Tottenham have plenty of reason to keep watching.
Jorge Mendes enters the picture
Portugal’s Record report that Schjelderup signed a representation agreement with Gestifute before leaving for his latest Norway commitments.
The newspaper points out that this brings a new player into discussions over the 22-year-old’s future.
Benfica president Rui Costa is still trying to secure a renewal. The club presented Schjelderup with an offer in June which would extend his contract until 2031.
They are still waiting for an answer. There is no suggestion from Record that Schjelderup hired Mendes specifically to engineer a transfer. It would be a leap to claim that.
Still, the context is difficult to ignore. Gestifute is one of the best-connected agencies in European football. Schjelderup has now turned to them while his Benfica future remains unresolved after a summer full of transfer interest.
Tottenham were right in the middle of that. Reports in Portugal during the summer even had Spurs making an offer worth up to €55m (£47.4m). There were conflicting claims over whether that proposal formally reached Benfica though.
From ‘fundamental’ to 26 minutes in two big games
There’s another big difference from the situation Tottenham faced in August. Marco Silva was publicly making a very strong case for keeping Schjelderup then.
The reality now has been somewhat different. Schjelderup did start against Moreirense earlier this month and made the most of it, scoring once and providing two assists in a 4-0 win. He then played 72 minutes against Gil Vicente.
The bigger matches that followed tell another story. He got only ten minutes in the 2-0 Europa League win over AC Milan. Against Porto on Sunday, Silva gave him 16 minutes from the bench. That’s 26 minutes across two of Benfica’s biggest recent fixtures.
It doesn’t mean Schjelderup is suddenly unwanted. His Moreirense performance alone shows he can still have a big impact. Yet his position looks rather different from when Benfica were fighting to renew him and Silva was publicly explaining why he was so important.
Now there’s Jorge Mendes in the middle of it all as well. And for Tottenham, who spent the summer circling the situation, that should make Schjelderup’s next few months particularly interesting.
