Manchester United have a long and pretty successful record of signing players from Portuguese football. Cristiano Ronaldo, Anderson and Nani are from a different era, but Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot carry the flag in the club’s current squad.
Even the club’s last manager, Ruben Amorim, was identified for his work at Sporting CP. The coach was shown the door on Monday, yet during his time there were endless claims of interest in players at the Lisbon club.
That was often presented as being related to Amorim, but in truth Manchester United have scouted Sporting CP regularly since before he was even a manager.
Sporting is perhaps the club the Red Devils send scouts to most in Portugal. Benfica and Porto obviously get attention too, but they’re not the only ones.
On Saturday, Vitória Guimarães faced SC Braga in the Taça da Liga final. It was also the Mino derby, which is a serious rivalry and quite a big deal in Portuguese football.
Manchester United had an official present, with O Jogo naming them a transfer ‘shark’. They were joined by scouts from clubs including Barcelona and Marseille.
Vitória Guimarães won the match 2-1, leading to wild celebrations afterwards.
Manchester United interest intriguing
Vitória Guimarães beat Braga to win the Taça da Liga, with Manchester United in attendance
Vitória Guimarães beat Braga to win the Taça da Liga, with Manchester United in attendance
According to O Jogo, the standout performer was Vitória’s Samu, who scored a goal. However, the midfielder turns 30 in April so is unlikely to be a Manchester United target.
Samu got 8/10, nobody else got more than 7.
Intriguingly, Manchester United had a scout watch Vitória Guimarães beat Sporting on January 7th.
So… it’s a Vitória player they’re interested in then? Maybe not, because on January 8th, the club had someone there as Braga beat Jose Mourinho’s Benfica 3-1.
Manchester United appear to be paying close attention to the Minho clubs. Transfer plans will almost certainly be ahead of the summer window, rather than trying for a surprise January arrival.
Certainly a transfer situation to keep an eye on.