Earlier this week, when the Portuguese media revealed that Everton would have a scout at Benfica’s match against Sporting, we pointed out the Toffees could be watching Florentino Luís.
With the original report not mentioning who the Goodison Park side would be keeping an eye on, we explained it was key that back in January an attempt was made to bring the midfielder to Everton.
With Florentino the obvious target, it’s interesting what Record has to say about his performance.
Benfica and Sporting drew 2-2, and with the Lions having won the semifinal’s first leg, they ended up getting a place in the final. That didn’t erase the Eagles’ good performance in this second game, though, and Florentino was picked by the newspaper as their best player, with a 4 out of 5.
‘Benfica were superior and owed a lot to the work of their midfielders. Florentino and João Neves were decisive in cancelling out the Lions’ attacking ability, especially from the centre. The number 61 was almost always impeccable at reading the game, strong at tackling and duelling,’ says Record.
‘What’s more, as we’ve seen in recent games, he’s corrected one of his main shortcomings: the effectiveness of his long passes to the men in attack.’
Florentino had some ups and downs in his career, and at 24, he’s finding his good form again.
Despite a €120m release clause in his contract, he’s valued by Transferamrkt at €20m.
Everton scouts will obviously want him to do well… but not too well as he could end up out of reach.
