Cavani’s contract demands kept door open for Man Utd as Benfica missed out

Edinson Cavani’s contract demands kept the door open for him to join Manchester United, with Benfica president Luis Filipe Vieira revealing that he was looking to put a deal in place at one stage.

Experienced frontman Cavani dropped into the free agent pool when severing ties with Paris Saint-Germain.

He departed Parc des Princes in July and was not snapped up by United until the final day of the summer transfer window in October.

Various landing spots had been mooted for him by then, with La Liga giants Atletico Madrid seemingly leading the chase at one stage as interest intensified.

Benfica had also been in the running, with Vieira keen on adding the proven 33-year-old to his books in Portugal.

No agreement was reached there, though, as the personal terms being sought by Cavani scuppered some best-laid plans.

Vieira believes he could have been able to put a deal in place had face-to-face talks been held, but he was unable to arrange such a meeting and United eventually agreed to pay the Uruguayan what he was after.

“Benfica made a proposal, sensible and the one we could make to sign Cavani,” Vieira told Portuguese news outlet RTP.

“Everything led us to believe we’d close the deal, but when things started to take a while I asked them to send a proposal in writing.

"And when I got to see it, it was practically twice what we had said.

“Then I said we were not interested. I confirm that we were interested, but I can guarantee that if I had met with him, he’d have signed.”

Cavani is currently being eased into the fold at Old Trafford, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer opting against handing his new recruit an immediate reunion with PSG in the Champions League on Tuesday.

The Red Devils boss has said of that decision: “He’s naturally fit. He is fit enough but he needs to play football with the rest of the players and be in those kinds of situations.

“Of course, you can’t live on memory, really, because it’s been a while.

“He’s very thorough, professional and he knows what he needs and what he wants. He still hasn’t ticked all the boxes before he’s available to play.”