Barcelona are set to lose out to Portuguese giants Benfica within the race to signal Argentine prospect Gianluca Prestianni, 90min understands.
The 17-year-old has been turning heads for Velez Sarsfield in Argentina, and has already performed 33 occasions within the nation’s Primera Division.
Prestianni, who was born in Argentina however is of Italian descent, is a winger by commerce however may play centrally, and his maturity at such a younger age has been likened to Wayne Rooney when he first broke by means of at Everton and Manchester United.
Velez are actually getting ready to lose Prestianni in January due to a £10m launch clause written into his contract, and sources have confirmed to 90min that Benfica are hoping to win the race for his signature.
That is regardless of months of curiosity from Barcelona, who’ve seen their La Masia academy churn out skills like Pedri, Gavi, Alejandro Balde and Fermin Lopez in current occasions, although Prestianni has not totally dedicated to Benfica but.
Prestianni has additionally been watched quite a lot of occasions by Manchester Metropolis, Tottenham, Newcastle, West Ham and Wolves, however Benfica are cautiously optimistic that {the teenager} will see the Estadio da Luz as one of the best growth possibility for him and ignore the glamour of the Premier League – for now not less than.
If Prestianni does decide to hitch Benfica, he’ll probably be swayed the membership’s confirmed monitor of document of giving alternatives to younger gamers earlier than they go on to play among the world’s greatest golf equipment.
Joao Felix, Enzo Fernandez, Darwin Nunez, Ruben Dias, Goncalo Ramos and Ederson have all benefitted from enjoying for Benfica, having fun with success with the membership previous to sealing large cash strikes away. Ought to they obtain all add-ons and bonus funds, Benfica can have obtained over €500m in switch charges for these six gamers alone.
Benfica additionally stand to make enormous sums of cash of Antonio Silva and Joao Neves – two younger Portuguese prospects who’re on the purchasing checklist of quite a lot of high groups after establishing themselves as first-team regulars.