After only half a year, Jan-Niklas Beste’s foreign adventure is finally coming to an early end. The left winger from top Portuguese club SL Benfica is about to return to the Bundesliga. An agreement on a winter transfer is said to have now been reached.
As the Portuguese newspaper “Record” reported, SC Freiburg is said to have prevailed in the courtship of the 26-year-old.
In addition to the Breisgauer team, Mainz 05, RB Leipzig, VfB Stuttgart and Borussia Mönchengladbach, many other Bundesliga clubs were also considered interested in the left-footed player.
According to the Portuguese source, Freiburg should be prepared to pay around ten million euros for Beste. This means that the former German junior national player would be just as expensive as the previous record transfer Baptiste Santamaria, who also moved to the Baden team for ten million euros in the summer of 2020.
Jan-Niklas Beste will no longer be in Benfica’s squad next Wednesday when the Lisbon club meets Juventus Turin in the Champions League.
The deal should then be finalized by the coming Bundesliga weekend, when the transfer window will also close.
Best no longer played a role at Benfica recently
The Hammer native, who moved from 1. FC Heidenheim to Lisbon last summer and signed a long-term contract with Benfica until 2029, was not happy at his first stop abroad.
In total, he was only in the starting line-up for Benfica six times in all competitions. In the last few weeks he was no longer taken into account by head coach Bruno Lage, who took over from German coach Roger Schmidt in the autumn.
In the 2023/2024 season, Beste caused a sensation with 21 scorer points in 31 Bundesliga games for 1. FC Heidenheim.