Now the signing of Luis Semedo from Benfica has been confirmed by SAFC, here is all you need to know about the Portuguese forward...
WHO IS HE AND HOW HAS HE BEEN GETTING ON?
Semedo was born on the 11th August 2003 in Lisbon and is of Cape Verdean descent. He has spent his entire playing career with Benfica, although he hasn't made a senior appearance for the club. The attacker made 23 appearances across the Benfica B, U19 and U23 teams last season. He found the net eight times and assisted once. He has been particularly clinical in the UEFA Youth League and the U23 league with four goals in four appearances and two goals in one appearance respectively. If his goalscoring record doesn’t convince you, the fact we’ve beaten the likes of Brighton, Juventus and AC Milan for his signature should.
HOW DOES HE PLAY?
Standing at 6 '3, Semedo will provide some much-needed physicality to this Sunderland side and reinforce our attacking options, with the club only having one other senior striker at the moment. Reportedly, Semedo is a player who drops quite deep and gets the ball to his feet, before pushing forward. He will sometimes move further out wide as well, to look for a pathway into the box. Luis isn’t a player afraid to take on defenders either, a product of his height and physicality. Most of his goals appear to be from inside the box.
FREE TRANSFER
It seems that Speakman and the rest of the recruitment department were keen to sign Semedo based on the fact that he’s still only 19 and available on a free transfer coming out of one of the best youth systems in Europe. He seems to also have a very similar playing style to Ross Stewart so the two will compliment each other well, assuming Stewart is still here of course. We could have another "SAS" partnership on our hands.
INTERNATIONALS AND ACCOLADES
Semedo has been capped for Portugal at U20 and U19 level, with two caps and one cap respectively. He has won two trophies at youth level, both in 2022. He scored five times for Benfica U19 as they won the UEFA Youth League and then scored the winning goal for Benfica U20 as they won the U20 Intercontinental Cup in front of a crowd of over 40,000 in Uruguay.
