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.
Benfica look to get back to winning ways after a bit of a tailspin the last two games after five straight victories to start the league season. As the club currently sits in fourth spot but can move back into third with a victory over Maritimo in Madeira. Benfica will play Maritimo today
at 7pm WEST
and
they will dress 20 players from the list below.
Keepers- Vlachodimos, Mile Svilar, Helton Leite
Defenders- Diogo Goncalves, Alex Grimaldo, Otamendi, Vertonghen, Jardel, Gilberto, Joao Ferreira
Midfielders- Chiquinho, Pizzi, Franco Cervi, Rafa Silva, Samaris, Everton, Gabriel
Forwards- Waldschmidt, Seferovic, Goncalo Ramos, Facundo Ferreyra
Benfica midfielder Julian Weigl could be on his way out of the club when the January transfer window opens after hiring agent Pini Zahavi to represent him going forward. Weigl arrived at Benfica last January from Borussia Dortmund for €20M when Bruno Lage was still the manager of the club but is not a first choice option since the arrival of new manager Jorge Jesus to the club. The 25 year old Weigl has only started in three games for Benfica this season, playing a total of 435 minutes. It is rumoured that Weigl's decision to hire Zahavi is to find a new club were he can play regular minutes with Italian trio AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus linked to his services. Benfica are said to want €25M if they are to consider moving Weigl when the transfer window opens.
