Another day, another Slimani page in the Portuguese press. But this time, they claim it to be serious: the striker has now decided to leave Sporting this summer.
According to Record, Slimani wants to play in an European top league and thinks this is the time to do it, since he’s turning 28 this month.
There is nothing really new there, since Slimani’s desire to play in another country has been reported for months. But Record claims that this decision has now been officially made and the Sporting board are pretty aware of it.
Sporting president Bruno de Carvalho keeps the same opinion: pay the striker’s release clause or no deal. So whoever wants Slimani will need to spend €30m until June 30, the date when his clause expires, or will need to negotiate the price directly with the club after that deadline.
Record mentions Leicester, Tottenham, Everton (surprise here, they haven’t been linked for a while) and Atletico Madrid as the most likely clubs to bid for the Algerian player.
Slimani has repeatedly been said to prefer a transfer to Tottenham, and they’ve been repeatedly linked, but he’d surely be fortunate to get that move.
Not because of his record, he’s done very well, but if Spurs wanted him then you’d assume it could have been done already… unless Daniel Levy is waiting to be able to pressure Sporting as the window grows older.
We’ve been covering around five Slimani articles per week, and the developments about his exit have been very slow.
The departure seemed to be more serious earlier this year, when clubs were reportedly outbidding others in the battle for the striker. But since Sporting said he would only leave for his release clause, the interested clubs haven’t been showing much confidence in paying this amount for him.
