Rui Costa faced huge hurdles in the Benfica transfer market | OneFootball

Benfica has conducted one of the most productive transfer markets in its history so far, with the arrival of some big names like Richard Ríos, Georgiy Sudakov, and Dodi Lukebakio. However, not everything went well for Rui Costa and the team during this transfer window, with some moves, such as João Félix's, falling through.

The newspaper A Bola writes in its Friday edition, September 5, that besides the deals completed, there were targets that slipped through Benfica's fingers. The first name to leave Rui Costa 'high and dry' was Nélson Semedo, with the 31-year-old right-back preferring to head to Fenerbahçe instead of returning to Luz.

However, the Portuguese international was not the only 'Seixal-made' player to escape the return route. The case that perhaps generated the most ink was João Félix. Amid various advances and setbacks, the deal seemed close to closing until Al Nassr, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Jorge Jesus, took the forward to Saudi Arabia.

Nonetheless, the 'failures' did not stop there. Before Sudakov, Benfica also tried to sign Thiago Almada, who ended up signing with Atlético Madrid. The alternative target for the same position was Mohamed Amoura, but even with Benfica willing to break all transfer records, the Algerian ended up staying at Wolfsburg.

Finally, but not least, the signing of a right winger was considered a priority throughout the market, but it only materialized on deadline day with the arrival of the Belgian international. Until then, Rui Costa did everything to secure the arrival of Anis Hadj-Moussa from Feyenoord, or Carlos Álvarez, a young player from Levante, but neither deal was completed.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.