Sunderland set to be beaten to Argentine transfer target | OneFootball

Since Kyril Louis-Dreyfus became the majority owner of Sunderland last summer, their transfers and recruitment has been very much driven on the additions of young and promising talents who can be eventually flipped for a profit.

The most successful deals that the Black Cats have struck so far have been for the likes of Dan Ballard, Jack Clarke and Pierre Ekwah, who were all landed last season and are showing that at some point they are capable of making the step up to the Premier League.

Sunderland don't get their hands on all of their targets though, and one of the players they were keen on over the summer was Benjamin Rollheiser.

Late on in the window, the Wearsiders agreed a deal to loan in the 23-year-old winger from Argentine outfit Estudiantes, who at the time had scored six goals and notched three assists in the top flight of his country in the 2023 season.

However, issues with third party ownership ultimately killed the switch at the final stages, and Sunderland went on with their season without the tricky Argentine in their squad - South America though was clearly an area of the world that the Black Cats were looking at though.

There was every chance that ahead of the January transfer window, Rollheiser might be back on the North East club's radar, but it looks as though he's landed himself an even more attractive transfer.

Sunderland transfer target set to sign for Benfica

According to Alan Nixon, who broke the news back in September of Rollheiser's failed switch to the Stadium of Light, it is now Benfica who are set to swoop for the attacking player.

The Portuguese giants are no stranger to bringing in promising Argentinian talents in the 21st century, and they are banking on Rollheiser becoming another star, with Nixon claiming that they are set to fork out £10 million on his services.

And that means it looks to be a big miss out for Sunderland, who could have signed him for a similar price at the end of the proposed loan move - they will now have to look elsewhere for a left-footed winger in January should that kind of player be on their radar.

Will Sunderland regret leaving it too late in the summer for Rollheiser?

Rollheiser has had an impressive season in Argentina for Estudiantes - he has featured in plenty of matches with 56 appearances in all competitions, but 12 goals and eight assists in that time is a pretty good record.

And if Sunderland had landed him on a loan-to-buy deal, then it would have been a significant coup and another big win for the recruitment team - there's every chance that Rollheiser would have lit up the second tier of English football.

It wasn't to be though, and now Benfica have swooped in for his services - and the Lisbon outfit seldom get things wrong when it comes to younger talents.

If Sunderland see the winger going for triple the £10 million he is heading into Europe for in a few years time, then there's likely going to be significant regret for many who were involved in trying to get the deal done.