Fulham have returned with a second loan offer for Benfica midfielder Florentino Luis after seeing their first approach rejected.

The Daily Mirror claims that the Whites are eager to snap up the Portuguese under-21 international, who had previously been interesting Italian giants AC Milan. With Milan moving on to secure the secures of Sandro Tonali, Fulham are now the frontrunners in the race to sign Luis and have reopened talks with Benfica about a possible loan move.

Fulham have reportedly doubled their proposed loan fee for the highly-rated midfielder to around £2m and the deal would include an option to buy Luis for around £25m, with similar figures quoted in the Portuguese press today. The 21 year-old is apparently interested in a move to the Premier League, having made just ten first-team appearances during an injury-ravaged campaign for Benfica last year.

Luis has long been tipped as one of the future stars of Portuguese football, having built a big reputation as part of the national sides that won the European under-16 and under-18 championships in 2016 and 2018. He burst into the Benfica first team with a real fanfare as a teenage, making his senior debut as a substitute against Nacional and then helping the Eagles win their first European tie in Turkey four days later in a victory over Galatasaray.

Scott Parker is known to be an admirer of young Luis, having flown to Lisbon prior to the Champions’ League final to demonstrate just how serious Fulham’s interest in the youngster was. Were Fulham to pull of a real coup and land the holding midfielder, the battle for places in the newly-promoted side’s engine room would prove fierce with summer signings Harrison Reed and Mario Lemina joining the likes of Josh Onomah, Tom Cairney and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa in contention for a starting spot.