Arsenal are closing in on the signing of Sporting CP striker Viktor Gyokeres. Will he be more Islam Slimani or Bruno Fernandes? We’ve ranked the biggest Premier League signings from the Portuguese top flight.
To avoid a colossal list with every single Liga Portugal signing, we made the cut-off point 20million euros on Transfermarkt, and anyone who turned out to have cost less than £15million after a quick Google search was ditched. That conveniently left us with 30 names, which was pleasing…
Most expensive Liga Portugal to Premier League signings ranked
30) Fabio Silva (Porto to Wolves, £35.6m)
What a very expensive mistake. Signing Football Manager wonderkids isn’t always a great idea. And yes, he’s still technically a Wolves player.
29) Lazar Markovic (Benfica to Liverpool, £20m)
Liverpool were supposed to be signing a wonderkid, but Markovic was anything but; he’s now 31 and without a club after leaving FC Baniyas in the United Arab Emirates.
28) Adrien Silva (Sporting to Leicester, £22m)
Leicester famously missed the deadline to sign Silva in the 2017 summer transfer window by 14 seconds.
He never scored for the Foxes in 21 matches, left for AS Monaco after three years, and didn’t score in 40 matches for the French club. Leicester should have taken that 14-second failure as a sign.
27) Giannelli Imbula (Porto to Stoke, £18.3m)
Imbula is best remembered for tweeting things like ‘New season how many goals for Imbula’ or simply posting photos of himself playing for Stoke with his name as the caption. He gave Victor Wanyama and Wayne Rooney a run for their money on Twitter.
On the pitch, he couldn’t get anywhere near the dizzy heights of Wanyama. He’s been without a club since February 2024 and as far as we’re aware, Imbula hasn’t yet called time on his career. Despite joining the Potters as one of the most exciting midfielders in Europe, he only played 28 times, scoring twice.
26) Islam Slimani (Sporting to Leicester, £29.7m)
Slimani scored 61 goals in 123 games for Sporting – an impressive record but not so fantastic that Arsenal fans should fear Viktor Gyokeres will be just as poor in the Premier League.
In my head, he was awful, but seven goals in 23 Premier League games in 2016/17 says otherwise. That’s hardly an outstanding return, but the fact he didn’t put up numbers to match Niclas Fullkrug in 2024/25 is surprising.
25) Eliaquim Mangala (Porto to Manchester City, £32m at least)
Another iconic Twitter moment is when an Everton fan said this to Mangala during his time on loan: ‘seriously mate no joking please just don’t play again prem not suited to u pal your crap no hard feelings just not worked out @ Mangala’.
Yeah…he wasn’t great. For City or Everton. He’s another one currently a free agent.
24) Darwin Nunez (Benfica to Liverpool, £64.2m plus £21.2m in add-ons)
It’s just not worked out for poor Darwin at Anfield. The word ‘raw’ has been associated with him since day one, and at 26 years of age, you don’t want to be tagged as ‘raw’. He will almost certainly leave Liverpool this summer after scoring seven goals in 47 matches last season.
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23) Nico Gonzalez (Porto to Manchester City, £50m)
There’s talk of Nico leaving City already, having only joined for a huge fee in January. If that happens, his ranking will tank.
22) Fabio Vieira (Porto to Arsenal, £34.2m)
Vieira’s poor physical attributes have caused him to struggle in England. He spent last season on loan back at Porto and it’s anyone’s guess what happens now. Eberechi Eze joining would surely mean the end for him at the Emirates.
21) Marcos Rojo (Sporting to Manchester United, £16m)
Rojo was quite entertaining, but only because he was a classic, chaotic Argentine. Like a taller, more unhinged, less talented Lisandro Martinez.
20) Javi Garcia (Benfica to Manchester City, £15.8m)
Two-cap Spanish midfielder Garcia joined from Benfica for a respectable fee as Roberto Mancini sought more physicality in his title-winning midfield. He played 76 times for the Cityzens and was a real ‘does a job’ player.
19) Victor Lindelof (Benfica to Manchester United, £30.7m plus £8.8m in add-ons)
The Swedish centre-back was simply ‘meh’ for United, which is not exactly what you want for close to £40million.
18) Jose Bosingwa (Porto to Chelsea, £16.2m)
It’s hard to see Bosingwa’s name without thinking of his studded assault on Yossi Benayoun that didn’t even result in a yellow card. That, and the fact he had a monobrow.
17) Anderson (Porto to Manchester United, £20m)
After his first season at Old Trafford, Anderson won the 2008 Golden Boy award. He’s a weird one, really. It’s obvious that he didn’t reach the heights expected, but he wasn’t a bad player. Sitting near the middle here feels right.
16) Matheus Nunes (Sporting to Wolves, £38m plus £4.2m in add-ons)
Wolves winning the race to sign highly-rated young midfielder Nunes wasn’t overly surprising given their Portuguese ties through Jorge Mendes, but it was still a coup.
He wasn’t as good as expected but they still sold him for a profit to Man City.
15) Diogo Dalot (Porto to Manchester United, £19m)
Overall, this has been a pretty decent signing, and Dalot sitting middle of the road is a good indication that Liga Portugal signings have been pretty successful in Our League.
14) Evanilson (Porto to Bournemouth, £31m plus £8.5m in add-ons)
Replacing Dominic Solanke was always going to be tricky, but Bournemouth nailed it with Evanilson. He’s very different, but just as effective up front. The Cherries will hope to repeat the trick when replacing Dean Huijsen this summer.
13) Raul Jimenez (Benfica to Wolves, £30m)
Jimenez’s horrific skull fracture understandably hindered the second half of his Wolves career. His form was never the same, but overall, he was a very good signing.
12) Ricardo Pereira (Porto to Leicester, £17.5m plus £4.3m in add-ons)
Pereira hasn’t been the same since suffering an ACL injury in March 2019. He’s become very injury-prone and his performances have understandably declined. Before that, though, he was one of the best right-backs in the Premier League. And he wasn’t too expensive.
11) Enzo Fernandez (Benfica to Chelsea, £106.8m)
The huge transfer fee for Fernandez makes him hard to rank, but there’s no doubt he has improved a lot under Enzo Maresca. In truth, he was never rubbish for Chelsea. He barely put a foot wrong, but just didn’t look like a £100m+ midfielder. He still doesn’t – but certainly looks a lot closer to one than before.
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10) Pedro Porro (Sporting to Tottenham, £39.7m)
Spurs nailed it with this one, even if the signing felt confusing for a while. It felt like Porro was signed as Antonio Conte’s perfect right-wing-back, yet everyone, Conte included, knew he was never going to last in north London.
And then when Ange Postecoglou came in, Porro’s place in the team was uncertain. It quickly became clear that he’s an elite right-back and perfectly fine in a back four.
9) Ramires (Benfica to Chelsea, £18.2m)
Benfica must love it when they hear a knock at the door and it’s Chelsea stood there, putting their index fingers together and cutely saying, ‘It’s me again’.
This was a low fee in comparison to Fernandez and friends, but still hugely successful. Best remembered for that chip against Barcelona, Ramires helped the Blues win the Champions League in 2012. He was a brilliantly consistent presence in the midfield with his ridiculous pace and engine.
8) David Luiz (Benfica to Chelsea, £21.3m)
Chelsea have quite the history when it comes to signing talents from the Portuguese top flight. Luiz’s first spell at Stamford Bridge was between January 2011 and July 2014, when he joined Paris Saint-Germain for over £40m.
Luiz was unpredictable, but that was kind of the charm with him. When PSG paid that huge fee, a lot of people were pretty surprised. Years later, I’m still not sure if he was brilliant or s**t.
7) Luis Diaz (Porto to Liverpool, £37m plus £12m in add-ons)
Currently wanted by Barcelona and Bayern Munich, the Reds are reluctant to sell Diaz, even if he is very purply patchy, 28 years old, out of contract in two years, and could fetch a significant transfer fee.
While the Colombian has it in him to score once in 15 matches, he also has it in him to score 15 goals in as many games. Don’t turn your nose up at seven assists and 13 goals in a title-winning campaign.
6) Joao Palhinha (Sporting to Fulham, £20m)
The price varies online, but what is for certain is that Palhinha was a huge success at Craven Cottage. And Fulham flipped him to Bayern Munich for a huge profit after two very productive years.
5) Ederson (Benfica to Manchester City, £34.7m)
After sacking off Joe Hart, there were some major goalkeeper teething issues for Pep Guardiola, with Claudio Bravo coming in and performing very unconvincingly.
Guardiola wanted a world-class ball-playing goalkeeper and he signed one in Ederson for a modest fee. He’s been well worth the money, even if errors have been creeping into his game more and more as the years pass by.
4) Ricardo Carvalho (Porto to Chelsea, £19.85m)
When Jose Mourinho joined Chelsea from Champions League winners Porto in 2004, a few players followed, including Paulo Ferreira and Carvalho.
After playing every minute in the Portuguese club’s Champions League-winning campaign, Carvalho casually helped the Blues romp to a Premier League title after Arsenal went an entire campaign unbeaten, and helped them to a monstrous defensive record of only 15 goals conceded across the 38-game season. If a Premier League record is ageing like a fine wine, it’s that one.
3) Nemanja Matic (Benfica to Chelsea, £21m)
Chelsea first signed Matic from Slovakian outfit MFK Kosice for pennies in 2009, selling him to Benfica for around £3m two years later. It took the Blues little time to realise they’d messed up and re-signed the Serbian midfielder for big money two-and-a-half years later.
Matic was only 25 when he returned to Stamford Bridge and he quickly became an integral player in Jose Mourinho’s team, which convincingly won the Premier League title in 2014/15.
He was a rock in midfield and scored the occasional banger as well, which is always a nice extra for your ball-winning midfielder to have.
There wasn’t much to separate Matic and Carvalho, so the fact the former was sold to Manchester United for around £40m, while the latter only left for around £7m, gives the midfielder the edge.
2) Bruno Fernandes (Sporting to Manchester United, £47m plus £20.7m in add-ons)
It would take some doing to top Fernandes to United, but that’s exactly what’s happened.
The Portuguese playmaker has been an incredible player for United and is comfortably their best signing since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.
1) Ruben Dias (Benfica to Manchester City, £62m plus £3m in add-ons)
Dias quickly became a huge player in City’s defence when he arrived in 2020 and was instrumental in multiple title wins. He walked into the team and instantly became a leader, helping his new club reach the Champions League final and win the Premier League title by 12 points.
He was named FWA Footballer of the Year, Manchester City Player of the Year, Premier League Player of the Season and the UEFA Champions League Defender of the Season in 2021 after an outstanding debut season. He remains a leading Premier League centre-back four years on.
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