Many Wolves eyes will be on captain Nelson Semedo once the 2024/25 season ends.
As things currently stand, Semedo will leave the club as a free agent when his contract expires.
Semedo joined Wolves in the summer of 2020, and has been a regular in the side ever since, making 176 appearances.
Over the last few months, there has been a lot of speculation about Semedo’s future.
Semedo is currently likely to leave Wolves, although there is an openness on both sides for the player to extend.
Benfica are interested in Semedo, with Bruno Lage keen to reunite with his former player, and bring the defender back to his old club.
But Semedo should certainly think carefully about potentially not extending Wolves for one key reason.
Nelson Semedo may harm World Cup prospects by leaving Wolves
Semedo leaving Wolves this summer and joining Benfica may not be the best play if he wants to make Portugal’s 2026 World Cup squad.
While Benfica are obviously a huge club, they do not play in a top five league in Europe.
Arguably, Semedo would have a better chance of being named in the squad were he to stay at Wolves for another year.
The Premier League is a higher standard than the Portuguese top-flight and also more visible.
If Semedo stays and performs well for Wolves next season, one would imagine there’d be a pretty good chance he gets called up into the World Cup squad.
Roberto Martinez is the manager of Portugal, and since he took charge of the national team in January 2023, he has called Semedo up to most of his squads, handing him 18 caps so far.
Perhaps it would be unwise of Semedo to change environments, as it may risk his prospects of playing in a final World Cup.
Vitor Pereira and Joao Gomes want Semedo to stay at Wolves
It will be really interesting to see which way this goes.
Seemingly the likelihood is that Semedo will depart, but it’s not totally out of the question he could extend.
Many fans will hope the latter comes to fruition, with the player having shown no signs of declining recently. Data from this season indicates he has performed relatively strongly.
He would be worth another season, but it’s just about whether an agreement can be reached.
It would be frustrating for the club to lose another captain this summer, especially when Pereira has publicly said he wants Semedo to stay.
Joao Gomes also said it’s an honour to play with Semedo, in what could be an indirect message to Fosun.