Manchester United have submitted a massive €60m plus variables bid for FC Porto striker Evanilson, according to multiple sources in Portugal.
The 22 year old scored 21 goals in 46 games last season as Porto went on to win the league and cup double.
Despite his club’s success, the Brazilian was outshone in the scoring department by Benfica’s Darwin Nunez, who has subsequently joined Liverpool.
However, Evanilson had to share attacking duties at Porto with Mehdi Taremi, who weighed in with 26 goals of his own last term.
According to Record and corroborated by O Jogo, United have already submitted the huge bid via superagent, Jorge Mendes.
And whilst the Dragons rate the player at €100 million, the report says they would be prepared to accept €70 million should PSG’s bid to sign midfielder Vitinha fall through.
“The blue and whites’ bosses had the sales of Fábio Vieira and Vitinha agreed, so the positive balance in the 2021/22 financial year was already guaranteed,” Record explains.
“However, PSG are late in concluding the signing of Vitinha and the latest news, from France, is that the Parisians intend to join the race for the Argentine Enzo Fernández, currently a target defined by Benfica and whose cost could be around half.
“If Vitinha stays, and if it is necessary to carry out another sale before the end of the year, on June 30, the fact that Man United have reinforced their interest in Evanilson, of whose contract FC Porto holds 80%, leads to the Brazilian being considered as negotiable.”
It is a lot of ifs, buts and maybes, and a curious claim. However, the fact that it is being reported by multiple sources gives it some credibility.
Also on the bandwagon is Correio de Manhã, who claim that the Red Devils have been chasing the player for four months on the advice of Ralf Rangnick.
However, these same papers reported that United were also chasing Vitinha, so if PSG were to pull out, why wouldn’t United reignite their interest in him?
There is an argument that Benfica used United’s name to push Liverpool into paying top dollar for Darwin and that Porto used their name to push PSG into making their move for Vitinha. Could the foxy old devils be using a similar tactic again?
Whilst United are almost certainly in the market for a striker and despite the fact that Evanilson is a decent player at a good age, he is not exactly one who set the world on fire last season and it seems unlikely that the Red Devils would have opened with a massive bid such as the one reported for a player valued at just €22 million by Transfermarkt.com.
On the other hand, stranger things have happened.