The zombie transfer has been resurrected. David Luiz now appears set to move to London, with Chelsea and Benfica agreeing to a deal which could rise to €35 million, according to Portugal publication A Bola.
So what's happened? When we last left you, a deal rumored to be €25 million plus Nemanja Matic was sidetracked when Luiz was pulled off a plane for England. Now it seems Luiz will sign his new contract in Lisbon, but under new conditions.
Matic is no longer part of the deal, hinting that the Serbian midfielder may not have wanted to move to Lisbon. In his place, Chelsea has augmented the €25 million fee with €3.5 million in performance clauses. Chelsea also agrees to play a friendly in Lisbon, and while the estimated gate for that is €1.5 million, A Bola estimates the match could push the total benefit to €35 million for Benfica.
All of which is a complicated way of saying both sides had their hearts set on a deal. It appears they tried to call each others' bluffs this weekend, but come Monday, they were willing to do whatever it took to get a deal done. Even when they couldn't get Matic into the deal, the clubs found a way to keep the price tag at €25 million while getting Benfica the value they want.
While we've seen other deals waver between life and death, the Luiz deal takes the cake, for this transfer window. It is the most undead of all dead deals.