Goncalo Guedes recently completed a loan move to Benfica – and a report has now shared how the Portuguese club won the race for the Wolves attacker, whom Julen Lopetegui had wanted to keen.
Guedes will spend the rest of the season at his former club, having failed to settled in England.
Hopes were high over Guedes when he arrived at Molineux for an initial £27.5 million. The club had been interested in him for months.
But he struggled to adapt to the Premier League, and started to find minutes hard to come by in the lead up to January.
Wolves came to the conclusion that Guedes would benefit from a loan move. And it was Benfica that won the race in the end.
According to AS, Guedes has several clubs on his tail.
His old club Valencia expressed interest. As did Lopetegui’s old club Sevilla.
Atletico Madrid were also keen, and Barcelona were also interested in signing him.
Guedes expressed interest in making a move to the Nou Camp. AS actually state that Guedes’ proposed move to Barca was ‘practically a fact’ on January 15.
But Benfica executed something of a hijack.
Benfica’s president Rui Costa contacted Guedes to convince him to return ‘home’.
He sold the project to Guedes, telling the player they were battling to become champions and that he could help them achieve their goal.
Costa had the alliance of the player’s family, who wanted to see him back at Benfica.
It is also suggested that Benfica’s status as a Champions League club was a decisive factor in Guedes choosing them over Barca.
Interestingly, it’s mentioned that Wolves manager Lopetegui did actually want to keep Guedes at Wolves to help him find his best level.
But Guedes was ‘clear’ he wanted out, and pushed for an exit.
Wolves need Goncalo Guedes to find form on loan at Benfica
So Benfica essentially managed to poach Guedes from Barca’s clutches.
Hopefully now he can play a big part in Benfica’s push for the title and also their Champions League campaign.
The Portuguese giants have been fantastic so far this season under Roger Schmidt.
There’s a good chance things will pick up for him. He’s already off the mark for them, scoring in the 3-0 win over Santa Clara.
Guedes will then come back to Wolves in the summer and a decision will be taken on him. Benfica don’t have an option to buy the player after his loan.
Since Guedes was apparently the one who wanted to go, then there may be a good chance of him being sold in the summer.
So Wolves officials will be hoping he really shines. Either he comes back to Wolves with much higher confidence, or he is sold for the same price (or higher) he was bought for.