Leeds United linked with Benfica winger

Is it silly season already?

The latest rumour is that Leeds United are interested in bringing in 21 year-old Benifca winger Diogo Goncalves to Elland Road. Goncalves is a right footed left winger who has starred for Benfica B in the Portuguese second division, scoring eight goals and registering eight assists in 35 appearances last season before coming up to play with the first team this season.

He’s not had as big an impact with the first team, but Benfica are one of the three “big” clubs in Portugal, along with Sporting CP and FC Porto. This isn’t the first time that Leeds have been linked with a young Portuguese player, as Leeds were repeated linked with Sporting player Tobias Figueiredo. Leeds even was tweeted at by Sporting, as the club “reminded” Leeds that they are called “Sporting Portugal” not “Sporting Lisbon” (although almost everyone in the English-speaking world refers to them as Sporting Lisbon).

After Andrea Radrizzani, the owner of Leeds, had a meltdown on Twitter after the home loss to Wolverhampton, there was a lot of speculation on what kind of changes that Leeds would look to in the summer. He continued his complaints about the relationship between Wolves and super agent Jorge Mendes the next day, even going so far as to write to both the Premier League and the Football League to seek clarification about the rules. He said that if everything was just fine with how Wolves were operating, then perhaps he’d like to try to do the same thing.

It just so happens that Goncalves’ agent is one Jorge Mendes. Could this “link” just be hot air or is there something to the rumour? All sorts of conspiracy theories can pop up from this “link” and almost none of them seem very likely, much like this rumour. Would Leeds be interested in him? A LOT of teams would be interested in Goncalves, but until he’s shown at Thorp Arch holding a Leeds shirt, this whole thing seems rather fantastic and not very believable.