Benfica fans have had a tough summer this time. The heart break of losing out in the Europa League final last season was still acceptable, the loss of several top players from the side this summer was too much to handle. Markovic, Garay, Rodrigo, Oblak, Andre Gomes et al have all moved elsewhere for greener pastures, while around €74m earned from transfer sales have been used to repay the debts.
The new signings haven’t been spectacular and Benfica are only hoping their young guns to come good this season. Brazilian midfielder Anderson Talisca is one of those young players to have joined Benfica, and he is firing all cylinders at the moment. Signed for a paltry fee of €4m only from Bahian championship, he has taken the league by storm.
Talisca is currently the league’s top scorer with six goals in seven games, with an average of 0.85 goals per game. Along with Lima, Salvio, and Gaitan he has emerged as one of the key players for Jorge Jesus this summer.
“No one knows Talisca? If he had a work permit already be playing in England,” said Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho recently.
Arsenal and Liverpool were rumoured to have been monitoring his situation as well, with Wenger showing keen interest in the 20-year-old.
However, it seems like the youngster is unfazed with all sorts of rumours going around him. He appreciates the encouraging words from The Special One, but feels he needs to grow with Benfica.
He said yesterday in an interview with Record: “I am flattered (with Mourinho’s comments). He is a great coach. I think his words are the consequence of what I’m doing here at Benfica. I still have to work hard to grow, one step at a time. Jesus is helping me a lot.”
Benfica can only hope Talisca to develop into a world class player in few years’ time so that they can sell him at a higher price and make profit out of the deal.
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