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Friday, 27 August 2010 13:54

Hleb inching towards Benfica move

Belarussian on outters at Barcelona

hleb.jpgBenfica are trying to sew up the remaining pieces of their squad. The club have been linked with a move for FC Barcelona midfiedler Alyaksander Hleb.

The 29-year-old is surplus to requirements at Camp Nou as the forward spent last season on loan with German side Stuttgart.

Seeing as there is still no room for him within the Barca squad and with the imminent arrival of Javier Mascherano, the former Arsenal man is looking for somewhere new to ply his trade.

One such destination is Portugal, namely Benfica. The Lisbon giants are said to be keen on taking Hleb on loan and the player's agent, Olivier Mirtszall, has confirmed that Benfica and Barcelona are locked in negotiations for his client.

"Things are still not clear between the two clubs," Mirtszall told Record. "The player knows of Benfica's interest and, at this moment, is thinking (about it). It is a possibility and everything will be decided shorlty."

"Hleb knows that Benfica are a big club in Portugal and one of the biggest in Europe."

by Marco Pereira


Comments (6)
re: torpiano
6 Saturday, 28 August 2010 00:54
Gary/Vancouver
Hleb made 35 appearances for Stuttgart last season and racked up almost 2500 minutes of playing time..He's only 29.
Toronto
5 Friday, 27 August 2010 23:51
Forcaslb29
Because portuguese players dont want to play in portugal...simple as that
Limit makes no sense
4 Friday, 27 August 2010 23:16
# of foreigners
It makes no sense to limit foreigners playing in Portugal. The league will suffer terribly in quality. Moreover, communism left the country already. The clubs are free to hire who they want. If they feel it is in their best interest to hire a foreign player, then who are we to say they shouldn't.

If you were to place a stringent cap, you would still find that clubs would field a lot of foreigners. Clubs would bring up players from their junior teams, and have them sit the bench, just to meet the quota of home grown talent.

The teams in the middle of the table and the bottom would suffer the most. The reason they can remain competitive is because they can go to Africa/S. America and get very good talent at a cheap price. If we require them to have Portuguese players, these are the teams that will fail, because there is not enough good talent for them to field competitive teams. The big 3 will get even bigger, as their budgets are much larger and can sustain an Academy, while the other clubs can't.
Enough Already
3 Friday, 27 August 2010 21:52
Joe/
why is it that Portugal's top clubs only want foreigners????.... when Porto won back in 2004, albeit with Mourinho as coach, they did it with home-grown talent like Carvalho,Maniche, Ferreira, Valente, Costa & Baia as starters.... all the other leagues groom their talent for the National squad.... because of this, Portugal has been struggling at major tourneys and will keep on doing so unless the Portuguese Liga starts lowering substantially the number of foreigners allowed....
rusty
2 Friday, 27 August 2010 17:42
torpiano, uk
The guy has hardly played in the last 2 years, surely any sane club would only consider a loan deal for this player.

In his pomp he was a high quality player, but that was then, this is now, it's a gamble for his next club but who's knows it might be a gamble that pays off.
Good Possibility
1 Friday, 27 August 2010 15:53
Mdot
This one doesn't seem like smoke, I've read several articles on this and it seems very likely that they will either buy him or get him on loan. He would be a great experienced player to add to our liga. We need a strong Benfica for the CL as we are coming closer to getting that 3rd CL spot.

Also I'm hoping Benfica bounce back after horrible start, getting two loses is something Benfica rarely does. Overall I'm looking forward to a close season which will result in greater attendance for most clubs.

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