Monaco have made an official bid for Thiago Ilori…
Huge spending provincial club Monaco have tabled a £4.3m offer for Sporting Lisbon’s Portuguese defender Thiago Ilori, talkSPORT understands.
The youngster is tall, quick, and looks set to become an extremely accomplished defender. He was actually born in London, but has represented Portugal at nearly every international youth level.
Liverpool, Chelsea, and even Tottenham have been credited with an interest in the 20-year-old, but it now appears Monaco will be able to land the player due to their unrivalled spending power.
Sporting Lisbon want at least £8.5m for the prodigy, who has made 12 appearances already for their first-team. Liverpool were unwilling to pay the inflated fee for a relatively unproven player, even thought they are desperate to add another centre-half following Jamie Carragher’s retirement and the uncertainty surrounding Martin Skrtel’s future.
Monaco have already raided the Portuguese league, acquiring James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho from Sporting’s rivals for huge money earlier in the summer. A deal for Llori would take their spending past the £130m mark, having already shelled out whopping fees on the likes of Falcao, Toulalan and the afforestation Rodriguez and Moutinho.
Whether they can rival fellow oil-rich Ligue 1 club PSG for the title is yet to be seen, although with their impressive squad it would be a surprise if Monaco didn’t qualify for the Champions League ready for the start of next season.
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