Santos playing hard ball with Benfica for defender

Benfica continue to negotiate with Santos for the services of central defender Lucas Verissimo as the Brazilian side play hard ball to drive up the price of the 25 year old. Santos' board was not impressed by the offer received from Benfica President Luis Filipe Vieira in his recent visit to Brazil last week looking to close the deal for the defender. Santos' board informed Vieira that they favoured a bid made from Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr which surpassed Benfica's reported bid of €6.5M but Verissimo has made it known to the club that he will only depart Brazil for a European league club and is not interested in a move to the middle east, complicating matters of any move being made outside of that region. Benfica do not look interested in increasing their bid for Verissimo and are open to switching targets and moving onto Flamengo defender Leo Pereira if negotiations with Santos continue to stall.