Nottingham Forest now preparing new offer for Florentino Luis
Nottingham Forest are now set to make a new offer to sign Benfica midfielder Florentino Luis. The Reds are stepping up their efforts to land a defensive midfielder before the transfer window closes next month.
According to Record, Forest are now set to bid around £26 million for the defensive midfielder. After having one bid rejected already, it seems positive that another is going in imminently.
Signing Florentino is unlikely to be easy. He has a contract with Benfica until 2027 and at 23-years-old he still has bags of unearthed potential.
Still, Benfica will be at the mercy of clubs playing in bigger European leagues than the one they feature in. This month, it’s also been claimed that Liverpool might take a look at Florentino after missing out on Moises Caicedo.
Furthermore, the ball might be in Luis’ court somewhat this summer. He’s not considered the first choice anymore at Benfica and reportedly wants to leave to play regular football.
Forest target Florentino has been on the books of Benfica for his entire career. He rose through the youth ranks with his current club and has spent time on loan with Monaco and Getafe.
The defence-minded midfielder doesn’t look to be in the club’s plans this season. In their opening game of the campaign against Boavista, he played for just six minutes from the bench.
Florentino does have quite a bit of experience to his name. He’s made 88 appearances for Benfica during his career and during 2022/23, played 24 times for Getafe in La Liga.
Forest set to make another bid for Luis
One of Florentino’s coaches of old at Benfica Joao Tralhao, previously raved about the player. He called him ‘amazing’ and compared him to some of the best defensive midfielders in the world.
It’s also been claimed in the past that he’s good enough to play for Real Madrid. Tralhao made that particular claim when he appeared on TalkSPORT in February.
The challenge for Forest when it comes to signing Florentino could be his transfer fee. Benfica will likely want in excess of £30 million and it will largely depend on whether the Reds have the resources.
Florentino will likely fancy a move though. He wants to play football and the real question here is how far Forest are willing to go when it comes to bidding for him.
Florentino would welcome a brilliant alternative to Ibrahim Sangare. He’s younger and perhaps a more realistic option for the Reds and hopefully, they can strike a deal here.
