Benfica's former Seixal academy prodigy Joao Felix has been named as one of the twenty finalists for this years 2019 Golden Boy award. The Golden Boy is awarded to the best player that is under 21 in Europe's top tier leagues and was started by Italian publication Tuttosport in 2003. The 19 year old Joao Felix had a terrific campaign with Benfica last season, appearing in 43 games across all competitions, Felix scored 20 goals while setting up 11. Felix's 2018/19 exploits caught the attention of Europe's top clubs and earned the youngster a move to Atletico Madrid this summer for a club record €126M. Felix will be looking to be the second Benfica player to win the award after Renato Sanches took home the prize in 2016. Felix is considered one of the favourites to be crowned the winner this year along with Juventus' Matthijs de Ligt and Dortmund's Jadon Sancho. The Golden Boy award will be announced on December 16.
Benfica President Luis Filipe Vieira is back in Portugal after spending the past week in Angola with former players Luisao and Pedro Mantorras. LFV is set to announce a new contract with 20 year old youngster Jota and the club at some point over the next week and will then turn his attention to signing a new contract with left back Alex Grimaldo. Grimaldo has been with the club since the winter transfer window of 2016 and is a vital piece of Benfica's current squad. Grimaldo's current contract is set to expire in the summer of 2021 and Benfica are looking to add a two year extension with the player.
Benfica then intend to discuss contract extensions with starting center backs Ruben Dias and Ferro. Benfica are hoping to increase Ruben Dias' buy out clause from the current €66M to at least €88M as some of Europe's bigger clubs circle the player. Benfica are also interested in increasing the buy out clause with current manager Bruno Lage who is signed until the summer of 2023 but currently holds a buy out clause of only €10M and of course the better the club performs the more interest outside clubs will have in acquiring Lage for there own clubs. LFV has a busy few weeks ahead as he looks to protect the clubs assets when the time comes to seek financial reward.
As we get to the half way mark of October, in a season that started August 4 when Benfica faced Sporting in the Super Cup, Serbian Andrija Zivkovic patiently awaits his first set of minutes in any competition for the club this season. Zivkovic who continues to train with the first squad, was for many including myself a logical option to step into the place of an injured Gabriel but manager Bruno Lage decided to go a different route, adding Moroccan midfielder Taarabt to the starting eleven. Then Zivkovic's name was bantered around as a choice to step into the secondary striker role with Benfica's current duo of Seferovic and Raul de Tomas struggling to find any sort of form, but once again Bruno Lage felt differently and moved to abandon the two striker set up all together at the moment. Benfica who have played 990 minutes across all competitions this season have not found a spot to use the 23 year old, so his wait for playing time continues.
Zivkovic last appeared for Benfica as a substitute on April 11 in the first leg of Benfica's Europa League encounter against Eintracht Frankfurt and last appeared in league action when he came on again as a substitute March 11 against Belenenses. The Serbian Football Federation has recently spoken up and is concerned with the lack of playing time that the former U20 World Cup champion has received from the club in the last six months. The Serbian Federation wants Zivkovic to continue to train hard and wait for his opportunity even though they seem baffled as to why that has not come this season. Zivkovic joined Benfica in the summer of 2016 and has appeared in 84 games across all competitions for the club scoring on 4 occasions while setting up 11 goals. Benfica knows that if they are to gain a financial reward on the transfer market the player will need to play regular minutes and a January loan move looks to be in the cards for the Serbian forward, both Zivkovic and the Serbian federation patiently await a decision on the direction of the club.
