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Manchester United are reportedly still in the race to sign Portuguese striker, Goncalo Ramos, this summer.
The Peoples Person have previously reported that the Red Devils approached Benfica to seek the transfer of the 22-year-old, with an offer that would have seen Alex Telles given in return – as a makeweight.
Both Benfica and Telles rejected this arrangement and Telles subsequently moved to Saudi Arabian side Al-Nassr.
As O Jogo reports, United are still looking to pry Ramos away to Old Trafford. They’ll be facing some financial complications, however.
Ramos is represented by football superagent, Jorge Mendes, who is set for a significant payday if and when Ramos gets sold by Benfica.
His contract stipulates that his current and past agents, Mendes and Mohamed Afazal respectively, will each be entitled to 10 per cent on a future sale.
For Benfica, this would work out to a 20 per cent loss in revenue on the sale of their biggest on-field asset.
Understandably, being keen to minimise potential losses, they’re asking for €80m.
This would be enough to give the club a reasonable €64m cash inflow. The problem is, it’s also, apparently, much too high to attract realistic suitors.
Although Benfica have already rejected offers reportedly as high as €65m + €5m in addons, €64m is likely much closer to Ramos’s real market value than €80m.
As yet, no clubs have made an approach in the region of the latter figure.
This is a problem Benfica may seek to resolve simply by waiting. The terms of the contract stipulate that Afazal will no longer be entitled to a 10 per cent stake from the end of August.
With a much lower commission expense to think about, Benfica may become favourably disposed to more reasonable pricing.
Mendes, on the other hand, will continue to be entitled to a 10% share of income from a future sale of the player under his current contract.
United will have to decide whether the striker is worth the hassle and extra costs or if they’d be better off looking elsewhere.
