Benfica linked to Guimaraes forward Jota Silva

Benfica are looking within the league for a possible reinforcement, with Guimaraes' winger Jota Silva being linked with a summer move to Lisbon, according to reports coming out of Portugal this week.

Jota Silva was recently named the league player of the month for March in Portugal and also earned his first call up to the Portugal national side during this same month, coming on as a substitute in two contests.

Jota has been a key player for Guimaraes this season as the Minho club battles for a top three spot for the first time since the 2007-08 season. Jota has appeared in 39 games across all competitions, scoring 15 goals while providing seven helpers.

Guimaraes is said to be looking for €15M to move on from Jota, which would be a hefty profit on the €190K that they paid Casa Pia in the summer of 2022 to acquire the 24-year-old.

Benfica working on purchasing all of Morato's pass

Benfica are looking to add the 15% of center back Morato's pass that the club currently does not own at this time. With those rights still belonging to his former club, Sao Paulo, Benfica have been in constant discussions to obtain those rights, whether they decide to sell the player or keep him during the off-season.

Benfica acquired Morato in the summer of 2019 for €7.6M and the 22 year old has appeared in 83 games for the club across all competitions, scoring twice while providing two helpers since joining the club. Morato has garnered interest from clubs in Europe's bigger leagues but with the potential of Benfica moving current starter Antonio Silva in the summer. The Lisbon club would like to hang onto the left-footed defender, who would most likely slide into a starting role with the club.

Benfica look to have found Rafa replacement

Welcome to Benfica. Orkun Kokcu, the Turkish attacking midfielder seems to have finally found his place with the club after a handful of sparkling performances in the attacking midfielder role. A position that Kokcu seems most comfortable playing and a position that earned him the Eredivisie Player of the Year during the 2022-23 season.

Benfica manager Roger Schmidt tried to see what kind of versatility he could get from the 23 year-old during the season by playing him in a variety of positions, but other than a decent performance here and there, it was a continuous failed experiment. 

It looks to have taken a Kokcu interview with a Dutch media outlet in March to change the mind of the German manager, an interview in which Kokcu stated his lack of playing time in his preferred attacking position had a lot to do with a string of poor performances this season. 

With current XI starter Rafa Silva set to become a free agent at the end of the season, Benfica is finally getting what they paid for when they acquired Kokcu during the summer for a club record fee of €25M and they have hopefully found the heir apparent to Rafa going forward.