In June, the Portuguese media started coming up with stronger rumours regarding interest from Premier League clubs in Sporting midfielder João Palhinha.
It was first claimed that Wolverhampton Wanderers had the player as a ‘priority target’, and soon Leicester City showed up in the race for him as well. At one point, it was said that €30m would be enough to ‘open negotiations’ with Sporting.
Now following Palhinha’s participation in the Euros, newspaper A Bola brings an updated look at the midfielder’s situation at Sporting.
The outlet claims there’s a new club in the battle for his signing, which is Atalanta. They now join the likes of Leicester City, Wolves, Tottenham Hotspur, Sevilla, Atletico Madrid and Napoli in the list of potential buyers.
However, Palhinha has just had good performances at the Euros, and Sporting manager Ruben Amorim would like to keep him in the squad for next season.
So even though the Lions would have considered a bid of €30m, the situation now is that an offer would have to be ‘way over that amount’ so it can be taken seriously by the Lisbon side.
So the Foxes and Wolves may regret not moving sooner for Palhinha, because Sporting can push his fee up to €60m, which is the price of his release clause.
