Portuguese giants Benfica are arguably the number one black shop in European football, with a history of buying young players at low prices, developing them to perform at a high level in the league and Champions League, and then selling them to other teams at a high price.
In recent years, Benfica has had a big transfer operation almost every season, but the black store cannot only sell and not buy, but also often buy. According to several media outlets, Benfica FC has reached an agreement with Santos of the Brazilian league to buy 20-year-old striker Marcos Leonardo for 18 million euros.
Leonardo, born on May 2, 2003, is a product of Santos' own academy, and in 2020, at the age of 17, Leonardo entered the Santos first team, and scored four goals in 18 appearances, and is considered a future hopeful.
Leonardo improved quickly in the following seasons, becoming the team's leading scorer from 2022, scoring 54 goals and providing 11 assists in 168 appearances for Santos so far, and this season's stats are 21 goals and 4 assists in 49 games. In the Brazilian youth team, Leonardo is also the main striker, and he scored five goals in five appearances at the Under-20 World Cup, and he also performed well.
In contrast, the other two talented teenagers of the Brazilian league, Endrick, scored 14 goals in 53 games, and Roque scored 21 goals and assisted 6 times in 44 games, and the two have been bagged by Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, and from the data point of view, Leonardo is not worse than them, but Leonardo is 2 years older than Endrick and Roque.
So in the ranking of players in the Brazilian league, Endrick topped the list with 45 million euros, Roque ranked second with 40 million euros, and Leonardo and Andre ranked third with 25 million euros.
From the point of view of technical characteristics, Leonardo's height is only 1.74 meters, his speed and explosiveness are good, and the position on the field is mainly a center forward or shadow striker, as a Brazilian player, his foot technique is very delicate, the left and right feet are balanced, good at dribbling and passing, and the means of shooting are diverse, especially good at picking and shooting.
As a famous FM demon, Leonardo has attracted the attention of European giants very early, Manchester United, Arsenal, Juventus, Roma and other teams have taken him as a target for recruitment, among which the Serie A Roma team has been negotiating with Leonardo in the summer of this summer has been very deep, it is said that only the official announcement was made, but at the last moment Santos team rejected the Roma team.
Now Benfica has suddenly come out to buy Leonardo for a low price of 18 million euros, and some senior media and commentators believe that this transfer should include a high secondary transfer share, at least 20%, and if it is high, it may reach 30%.
Referring to the 2022 winter window, Benfica only spent 20 million euros to buy Enzo from River Plate, but there is a 20% secondary share in the contract, so after selling 121 million euros to Chelsea in the winter window last year, River Plate received another 24.2 million euros, which is equivalent to a total transfer fee of 44.2 million euros.
So for the Santos team, although the price of 18 million euros is not high now, with Leonardo's personal strength and Benfica's star-making ability, it is not a big problem to sell it for 80 million to 100 million euros in a year, and the following is how Benfica has been transferred out at a high price in recent years:
In the summer window of 2023, Gonzalo Ramos, 80 million euros to buy Paris Saint-Germain on loan
In the 2023 winter window, Enzo Fernandez, 121 million euros to Chelsea
Summer window 2022, Nunez, €85 million to Liverpool
In the summer window of 2020, Ruben Dias, 72 million euros to Manchester City
In the summer window of 2019, Felix, 127 million euros to Atletico Madrid
This season, Benfica team has achieved 11 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss in the first 15 rounds of the Portuguese Super League after selling a number of key players, ranking second one point behind Sporting Portugal, and third in the Champions League group stage will go to the Europa League.
In the first half of the season, Benfica lacked attacking power, scoring 28 goals in 15 league games and only seven in six Champions League games, with 35-year-old Di Maria and 30-year-old Rafa Silva both scoring nine goals as wingers.
After Gonzalo left, Benfica lacked a center forward with a consistent scoring efficiency, and it is foreseeable that Leonardo is likely to occupy a starting spot after coming to Benfica.