On Monday, we covered reports from the Portuguese media which said Newcastle United were one of the clubs who had scouts watching Porto’s 5-0 win over Benfica at the weekend.
The stories from Portugal didn’t say who the Magpies were watching, and since Galeno was the man of the match, we pointed out he’s one of those who may have impressed the emissaries.
Now as newspaper Record comes up with a fresh story about the scouts who attended to that game, the information is exactly that Newcastle watched the 26-year-old winger.
It’s said Galeno has been wanted by Premier League clubs for a while, and was watched by some of them in this specific match, with the Magpies being one of them.
He had already scored the winner against Arsenal in the Champions League’s round-of-16, and now had two goals and one assist against Benfica.
Newcastle should just know that it won’t be easy to sign him from Porto. First because the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and Aston Villa reportedly also watched him on Sunday.
Then there’s the information that Porto had already turned down a €30m offer for him in January. He’s currently protected by a €60m release clause following a recent contract renewal.
Galeno is represented by Giuliano Bertolucci, the Brazilian agent who has great connections in the Premier League, where he often gets involved in negotiations.
Now speaking of his exclusive clients, the most valuable he has these days is Newcastle United star Bruno Guimarães, followed by the likes of Arsenal’s Gabriel Magalhães, Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Matheus Cunha, Fulham’s Andreas Pereira and Aston Villa’s Diego Carlos.
We should probably now just wait and see whether the Magpies were really watching Galeno, because with their visit to the Estádio do Dragão, it sounds a little convenient that they had been there especially to watch the man of the match. Other Porto players like Wendell, Alan Varela, Nico Gonzalez and Francisco Conceição all did very well, and they’re all young talents who could be drawing Newcastle’s interest.
