Porto clinch Kiwior, Benfica lull Lukebakio and Sporting add Ioannidis as Portuguese clubs smash transfer spending record | OneFootball

It has been a summer transfer window like no other in Portugal. Primeira Liga clubs spent a total of 352 million euros on new recruits, which comfortably beat the previous record of 274 million euros, set one year ago.

PortuGOAL rounds up the main signings made by the four major clubs, Porto, Benfica, Sporting and Braga, who will hoping to make a big impression on Portuguese pitches in the coming months and years.

Porto – main summer signings

Victor Froholdt (Copenhagen, €20M)

Gabri Veiga (Al Ahli, €15M)

Alberto Costa (Juventus, €15M)

Nehuén Pérez (Udinese €13.3M)

Borja Sainz (Norwich, €13.3M)

Jan Bednarek (Southampton, €7.5M)

Dominik Prpić (Hajduk Split, €4.5M)

Pablo Rosário (Nice, €3.75M)

Jakub Kiwior (Arsenal, €2M loan with €17M option to buy)

Samu (Atlético Madrid, €17M for remaining 50% ownership)

Benfica – main summer signings

Richard Ríos (Palmeiras, €27M)

Franjo Ivanović (Union Saint-Gilloise, €22.8M)

Dodi Lukebakio (Sevilla, €20M)

Amar Dedić (Salzburg, €12M)

Samuel Dahl (Roma, €9M)

Georgiy Sudakov (Shakhtar Donetsk, €6.75M loan with €20.25M option to buy)

Enzo Barrenechea (Aston Villa, €3M loan with €12M option to buy)

Rafael Obrador (Real Madrid, €5M)

Sporting – main summer signings

Luis Suárez (Almería, €22.2M)

Fotis Ioannidis (Panathinaikos, €22M)

Georgios Vagiannidis (Panathinaikos, €12M)

Francisco Trincão (Barcelona, €11M for remaining 50% of ownership)

Giorgi Kochorashvili (Levante, €5.5M)

Rui Silva (Betis, €4.7M)

Alisson Santos (Vitória, €2.1M)

Ricardo Mangas (Spartak Moscow, €300,000)

Braga – main summer signings

Pau Víctor (Barcelona, €12M)

Mario Dorgeles (Nordsjaelland, €11M)

Gustaf Lagerbielke (Celtic, €2.57M)

Alaa Bellaarouch (Strasbourg, €300,000)

Deadline day chaos

It is somewhat difficult to fathom given the millions of euros at stake, but as so often happens, the final hours before the transfer deadline (at midnight Monday, yesterday, in this case) saw several clubs desperately trying to get deals over the line.

Champions Sporting swapped strikers with long-term target Fotis Ioannidis signed from Panathinaikos, the Greek centre-forward replacing Conrad Harder who left for Leipzig in Germany. The Lions tried to bring in Jota Silva but the protracted negotiations with Nottingham Forest saw the Lisbon club run out of time to register the player and the deal was aborted.

Benfica followed up the purchase of Ukrainian playmaker Georgiy Sudakov on the weekend with the signing of Belgian winger Dodi Lukebakio from Sevilla, while Kerem Akturkoglu’s transfer to Fenerbahçe in Turkey was completed, and midfielder Florentino Luís was sold to Burnley.

Porto wrapped up their deal for Arsenal defender Jakub Kiwior. President André Villas-Boas had promised it would be a record summer in terms of expenditure on new signings and he was as good as his word. The Dragons spent over 111 million euros on new players.

Braga were close to swapping their wingers, with Roger Fernandes the subject of interest from Saudi Arabian club Al Ittihad and Santa Clara’s Gabriel Silva lined up as a replacement, but neither deal ended up happening.