\n<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old had already set up both of Erling Haaland’s goals in Norway’s 2-1 win over Brazil before going a step further against England, starting and scoring in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat that ended Norway’s run. That form has put the Benfica winger firmly on the radar of Europe’s biggest clubs at exactly the moment his relationship with the Lisbon giants was already showing signs of strain over a stalled contract renewal.<\/span><\/p>\n Benfica president Rui Costa has confirmed a renewal proposal is on the table, but Schjelderup has yet to respond, and sources close to the situation say the delay reflects genuine consideration of an exit this summer despite having two years left to run on his existing deal. <\/span><\/p>\n His release clause sits at a shark-proof \u20ac100m, but Benfica’s own internal valuation has hardened to a minimum of \u20ac40m, up from levels that looked touchable before the tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n Unlike team-mate Antonio Silva, who has only a year left on his contract and has similarly not renewed, Schjelderup knows his stock has never been higher, and the club is acutely aware of it too. Head coach Marco Silva regards the winger as a vital piece for Benfica’s Europa League qualifying campaign, with Schjelderup and fellow World Cup player Aursnes both set to miss the first leg against St Gallen on 23 July regardless of any transfer business. <\/span><\/p>\n But with Benfica already banking more than \u20ac40m in smaller sales this summer and still short of a single marquee departure, sporting management may see Schjelderup’s situation differently to how their coach does.<\/span><\/p>\n Interest from the Premier League has been building for some time, with Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool all credited with tracking the player, who has long made clear his ambition to play in England. <\/span><\/p>\n Schjelderup is due a rest period before returning to Seixal, after which formal talks with Marco Silva, general director Mario Branco and Rui Costa are expected \u2014 ostensibly about a renewal, but in reality centred on the terms of an exit.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To Ball reports the transformation has left Benfica facing an increasingly difficult fight to keep…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}