Mile Svilar awaits to hear from Benfica on what his direction will be at the club for the upcoming season, rumours have been swirling all off season that Benfica would prefer to loan the the 19 year old keeper to gain more experience playing regular minutes. A couple of clubs from his native Belgium in former club Anderlecht and Standard Liege are currently being linked with a Svilar loan move. The youngster has appeared in a total of 20 games across all competitions for Benfica since joining the club in the summer of 2017. Benfica will make any loan move include a no option to buy as the club sees Svilar as their goaltender of the future.
Atletico Madrid look to not be done dealing with Benfica just yet as less then a week after acquiring forward Joao Felix for a record breaking fee of €126M. Atletico Madrid are back looking to land Benfica striker Ivan Saponjic. Saponjic has yet to appear with Benfica's main club and spent last season with the B team in the second division of Portugal, he appeared in 28 games, scoring 6 times. Saponjic is said to have caught the attention of Atletico manager Diego Simone during the recent Euro U21 finals as he represented his native Serbia. Benfica would be willing to part with the young striker for a reported €8M but want to retain 20% of the players rights towards any future sale.
Jonas has called it time on his playing career thus ending his brilliant five seasons with Benfica. Jonas will be saying his good byes to the clubs fans tomorrow when Benfica plays its presentation game against Anderlecht, the club will also pay the final year of Jonas' contract. Jonas retires as the second all time leading foreign scorer in Benfica history, only trailing Oscar Cardozo's 166 goals. Jonas appeared in 183 games for Benfica across all competitions, scoring 137 times while setting up another 43. Jonas started his playing career in his home country of Brazil and European clubs took notice when he won the Brazilian league golden boot with Gremio in 2010.
He then moved to his other only European club Valencia in the winter of 2011 spending over 3 seasons with the Spanish side before signing as a free agent with Benfica in the fall of 2014. While at Benfica, Jonas has won 9 club trophies, four of them the league championship and was named the Portuguese League player of the year on two occasions while also being awarded the golden boot twice. Jonas will also be remembered as a vital member of a club that has regained its former glory over the past few seasons.
