Manchester United’s pursuit of Benfica’s Swedish defender Victor Lindelof seems to have hit a snag after reports emerged that the deal was being stalled due to the sum Benfica owe to his former club Vasteras. The defender, who began his career at his hometown club Vasteras, moved to Benfica in the December of 2011 and has since gone on to impress a host of fans and pundits with his steely performances in the heart of the defence.
Jose Mourinho and Manchester United are believed to be long-term admirers of the player and seemed to have all but wrapped up a deal to bring him to Old Trafford. The Manchester club was believed to have offered Benfica a mouth-watering deal that could rise to £38 million to part ways with him and with the Benfica president involved in processing the deal, it was a matter of time before the transfer was made official.
The Jose Mourinho-led side have not had the best of seasons thus far defensively and appear susceptible to being carved out by opposition time and again and in the light of the same, the Portuguese has had to move quickly in order to sign the defender.
The Swedish international, who has been nicknamed “The Iceman” owing to his calming demeanour on the pitch has proven to be an impressive player for Benfica, ever since he broke into their first team. He is clean going into tackles, is an intelligent reader of the game and most importantly, can carry the ball out of his defence to help his team assert their dominance over the opposition.
The player has already received the stamp of approval from Swedish legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who believes the player has all the required qualities to make a good signing for the Manchester club. The 22-year-old has impressed Ibra and the Swedish superstar was recently quoted as saying, “I think Victor is doing great things, he is playing good for Benfica, he gets a lot of responsibility for the national team now, he is growing.
“Is he good enough for United? I think he's good enough for the big clubs out there. It's up to him what he wants and what the situation says. Whatever he chooses will be good for him.”
With the kind of money being talked about, we expect the transfer to be sorted out soon so as to provide the player with ample time to settle into new conditions and a new league.
