Rivers were expensive and the tide went the other way: Froholdt is reinforcement

At some point late last week, with Roma turning their attention to French-Moroccan Neil El Aynaoui to bolster their midfield (something that ultimately proved true), speculation began that Benfica would now have the upper hand in signing Richard Rios, a Colombian from Palmeiras. However, in Porto, the hope of a last-minute "swing" was still being considered. After all, the Dragons had already made a €17-18 million offer for the player, and then those two deals for Francisco Conceição and Gonçalo Borges, which together would have yielded around €42 million, helped their ambitions to go a little further. That wasn't the option. Neither did the stakes rise for Rios, nor did the prospects of landing Kenneth Taylor increase at this stage. A plan B, long pursued at the Dragons, came into play.

While Richard Rios was a well-known player, having been scouted by FC Porto and Francesco Farioli, and the Dutchman Kenneth Taylor was a specific request from the new coach, who worked with the midfielder at Ajax last season, the possibility of signing Victor Froholdt, a 19-year-old Danish midfielder who is already a senior international (two matches) and had been monitored for some time by the club's recruitment and scouting department, emerged. The first proposal was rejected, but the second almost immediately led to a rapprochement between FC Porto and Copenhagen. Everything should be confirmed between Tuesday and Wednesday, with the player arriving in Porto for a medical before signing a contract and immediately joining the squad, which will be training in Aigen im Ennstal, Austria, over the next few days.

After an initial offer of €18 million plus two million in terms of objectives, FC Porto responded to the initial rejection by offering a fixed €20 million plus two million in terms of variables, which ultimately convinced the Copenhagen officials. Froholdt will sign a contract until June 2030, with a release clause of €85 million, close to the values of Samu or Borja Sainz. In total, and including the investments made in Samu (up to 100% of his transfer fee) and in Nehuén Pérez (90%), the blue and whites have already invested around €80 million in 2025/26 with Gabri Veiga, João Costa, Prpic, and Borja Sainz.

After starting his career at Vallensbaek, the midfielder joined Copenhagen when he was just 12 years old and went through the youth ranks there, making his senior debut at just 17. That initial 2023/24 season earned Froholdt a new contract until 2028 and a permanent stay in the Danish club's senior squad, before a breakthrough season that ultimately served as a springboard for greater heights: in addition to playing a total of 53 games and scoring six goals, the player was called up to his country's senior squad, making his debut with Portugal at Alvalade, where he came on as a substitute in the defeat to the Seleção that knocked Denmark out of the Nations League Final Four.

Froholdt was being followed by other European Big Five teams, such as Borussia Dortmund and Tottenham, but FC Porto, which already demonstrated its keen interest in the Scandinavian market last year with its mid-term investment in Deniz Gül (who played for Hammarby), managed to get ahead of the curve, securing a midfielder with box-to-box skills that had been rare in the Blue and White squad since the sale of Nico González to Manchester City in the January transfer window. Physically strong, the Dane stands out for his ability to progress with the ball, his penetration between the lines, and his recoveries.

In parallel, and just a few hours after the Dane's announcement, there could be a deal in the opposite direction... with similar values: Otávio, the Brazilian center-back signed from Famalicão, still resisted leaving during Francesco Farioli's first training sessions but will indeed leave Dragão, and for a sum well above what was initially expected, in a sale to Paris FC, which was promoted to Ligue 1 in 2024/25, which should yield 17 million euros fixed plus three million in variables.

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