Manchester United are said to have held talks with Portuguese champions Benfica over a potential £38m deal for defender Victor Lindelof. The defender is hot property in the footballing world at the moment after catching the eyes of many following his impressive couple of years with the Eagles.

Benfica signed Lindelof as a 17-year-old back in 2011 after the Swede caught the eye in his youth career with Vasteras SK in the lower tiers of Swedish football. The defender never really got a chance in the Portuguese side’s first team until January of this year as a 21-year-old – he hugely impressed, and cemented his place in the team by helping them to win the league title. Lindelof is also a regular for his country Sweden, and appeared in all three of their games in Euro 2016.

Sky Sports recently reported that United were interested in the centre back, but the news has become more solid this week after it emerged that United have held initial talks with Benfica over the 22-year-old with a view to completing a £38m deal.

United certainly aren’t sure of centre backs within their ranks, but the issue that Mourinho has with his options is that they are perhaps not as efficient and robust as he tends to like in a defender. Phil Jones and Eric Bailly look to be Jose’s type of player – but Jones has previously had injury troubles and Bailly will jet off to the Africa Cup of Nations in January, and could be away for up to 6 weeks. Chris Smalling has plenty of question marks regarding his future at United, but is generally considered as the strongest defender in the squad. Marcos Rojo has been in fine form in recent weeks, but is it enough for Mourinho to keep him at the club? The boss has already admitted that he is ready to offload players in the transfer window.

Regardless, Lindelof looks to be a quality player and has been likened to Rio Ferdinand by many who know him. If United are to wrap up a deal for the 22-year-old defender, it would certainly not be one to frown upon.