Liverpool given firm message as to what it’ll take to sign 19y/o touted to be future ‘legend’ – report
Liverpool have been given a firm message as to what it’ll take for them to sign Portuguese defender Antonio Silva.
It was reported by 90min last month that the Anfield club sent scouts to watch the Benfica gem in action for his club, with Tottenham believed to have done likewise. However, if either Premier League side wants to land the 19-year-old, they can expect to pay top dollar to get the deal done.
According to A Bola on Sunday [via Sport Witness], the Lisbon outfit will insist for any prospective suitors to meet his €100m (£88m) release clause if they’re to bring him away from the Estadio da Luz.
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Benfica are experts at recouping eye-watering transfer fees when selling their top talents.
Liverpool will attest to that, having stumped up an initial £64m – potentially rising to £85m (BBC Sport) – for Darwin Nunez last summer. Even that was dwarfed by the British record signing of Enzo Fernandez, who joined Chelsea in January for £107m (Sky Sports).
It should therefore come as no surprise that they believe they can land another massive payday if they sell Silva, who’s enjoyed a remarkable rise over the past year.
Having only made his senior club debut last August (Transfermarkt), he earned a place in Portugal’s World Cup squad, becoming his nation’s youngest-ever player in the tournament when he featured in their group game against South Korea (90min).
He’s especially composed in possession, ranking among the top 1% of centre-backs outside of Europe’s big five leagues for pass completion (91.6%) since April 2022 (FBref).
He’s also earned high praise from former Benfica teammate Jan Vertonghen, who backed the teenager to become ‘a legend’ in the future based on what he’s shown so far (CNN Portugal, via talkSPORT).
As talented a player as he may seem, though, Silva is vastly overpriced at £88m, particularly considering that he’d never played at first team level until eight months ago and is valued at a rather more modest €28.6m (£25.1m) by Football Transfers.
With Liverpool also likely to be planning a midfield rebuild this summer, they mightn’t have the leftover funds to put towards a pricey move for the Benfica defender.
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