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The Daily Mail are reporting that former Portugal striker Nuno Gomes is on his way to Blackburn, after being released by Portugese club Sporting Braga this summer.

The Ewood Park club want to pair 36-year-old Gomes, who scored 29 goals for the Portugese national side in 79 appearances and 125 goals for Benfica in two spells and 293 appearances, with new £3m signing Leon Best who joined yesterday from Newcastle United.

The striker reportedly agreed personal terms on a two year deal at the weekend, and is currently at the club undergoing a medical ahead of finalising the move, despite lucrative interest from both America and the middle east.

Blackburn will be looking to bounce back to the Premier League at the first attempt, but on the strength of their performances last season, there is still a lot of rebuilding to be done. The signature of Leon Best, who will find his level in...

Artwork courtesy of Espn and the Am I Collective. In Portuguese, there’s a word, saudade, that embodies many things at once: melancholy, loss, longing, heartache. It is at the center of the Portuguese character, dating back to those first navigators who set off on the high seas to span the globe. When would they be back? Would they ever return? It’s that wistful sort of dim hope that Portuguese soccer fans have had to endure as well. Would the “Golden Generation” of Luis Figo, Rui Costa, Nuno Gomes, Pauleta and others ever actually win a major tournament? No, as it turns out—but they would come very close at Euro 2004, in Portugal (losing to Greece 1-0 in the final), and at the 2006 World Cup (losing in the semifinals to France 1-0). Ahh, to be so close and yet fail—more saudade. But if past teams stumbled under the weight of expectations,...