With 16 goals and five assists, Rodrigo Zalazar has led Sporting Braga to fourth place in Portugal—and caught the eye of the dethroned champions. Sporting CP is now reportedly on the verge of paying a club-record fee for the Uruguayan, who joined from FC Schalke three years ago.
Sporting Braga didn’t quite make it to the big stage this season. Because SC Freiburg managed to turn a 1-2 deficit in the second leg of the Europa League semifinals into a 4-3 aggregate victory last Thursday, the club from northern Portugal—whose stadium is spectacularly set in a quarry—was denied a spot in the final. And with it, the millions in prize money that a victory in next Wednesday’s final in Istanbul would have brought.
Braga can still look forward to a veritable windfall, however. As reported by Portugal’s largest sports newspaper, A Bola, Braga’s best player of the current season has earned himself a move to the next level with his performances.
A contract through 2031 awaits at Sporting
Rodrigo Zalazar, who has contributed 16 goals and five assists to the team’s already-secured fourth-place finish and another year on the European stage, is at the top of the fallen champions’ wish list: According to the report, Sporting Club de Portugal has reached an agreement with the Uruguayan on a contract running through the summer of 2031, and he is set to undergo a medical exam as early as Wednesday.
To buy Zalazar out of his contract, which runs through 2028, the capital club is reportedly even willing to pay an unprecedented transfer fee. Sporting is reportedly transferring 30 million euros to Braga, which would earn them more than Famalicao once received for Manuel Ugarte (24.5 million euros, now at Manchester United), Coventry City for Viktor Gyökeres (24 million euros, now at Arsenal), or Luis Suarez, who joined from UD Almeria before the current season.
Zalazar scored the winning goal for Schalke in the second division championship
FC Schalke 04 will also be pleased with the deal. Zalazar moved from the Royal Blues to Braga in the summer of 2023 for six million euros. The year before, he had helped Schalke win the second-division championship with his 60-meter goal on Matchday 34 in Nuremberg. Now Schalke could benefit once again from the seven-time national team player; a 10 percent sell-on clause is expected to bring an additional 2.4 million euros into the club’s tight coffers.
However, according to A Bola, the transfer is not expected to be announced until after the Portuguese Cup final on May 24, in which Sporting will face second-division side Torreense.