Premier League is first Port of call for Mendes’ whizzkids
£178MILLION.
Almost a full team of young stars for the future are desperate to follow in the golden footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo and take the Premier League by storm.
The terrific 10 come with a great pedigree and most have links to super-agent Jorge Mendes who represents Ronaldo, Jose Mourinho and Man United’s David de Gea.
Top of the wanted list is Benfica forward Joao Felix, who at 19 is a regular in the first team with a playing style likened to Brazil legend Kaka.
Manchester United are monitoring Felix closely but any move at the end of the season will have to come with hard bargaining after Benfica demanded £100m for his service. Gedson Fernandes, 20 (below) is a central midfielder with Benfica and scored in their Champions League group stage defeat against Bayern Munich in November.
Ronaldo’s Juventus are the first to show huge interest but Fernandes, priced at £22m, is being steered towards a future career in England.
And another quartet of Benfica talents – defensive midfielder Florentino Luis, 19, and wingers Joao Felipe, also 19, Umaro Embalo, 17, who plays for Benfica B, and Heriberto Tavares, 22 – have also been linked with moves to England.
Romario Baro, 19, is an attacking midfielder who plays for Porto B but is on the verge of a promotion to the first team. At £1m he could be a summer bargain.
The lowest priced young star is Vitoria Guimaraes B attacking central midfielder Mimito Biai, 21, who could be snapped up by English clubs for only a modest £500,000.
Goncalo Cardoso, 18, is a centre-back with Boavista and valued at £3m. And finally there’s £1m attacker Idrisa Sidi Sambu, 20, who is in the last year of his Spartak Moscow contract and currently on loan at Belgian club Mouscron.
Portuguese football representative Acacio Moreno, who works with Tavares and Biai, said: “These boys are an exciting group of players with huge futures ahead of them.
“There is big interest across Europe but they are all suited to the English game and would make even bigger names for themselves playing in the Premier League next season.”