Aberdeen’s new head of recruitment Nuno de Almeida admitted he tried to hijack Duk’s move to Pittodrie.
The Portuguese talent spotter, who has a long history with manager Jimmy Thelin, had been an international consultant for the Dons since the summer, but will now take over all transfers in his new role, after Chris Badlan stepped down. De Almeida was previously sporting director at Portuguese side Rio Ave and tried to sign Duk from Benfica back in 2022 but he turned him down for a move to Aberdeen.
He confirmed: “I tried to sign him before for my previous club. In Benfica B, he was doing amazing coming from the bench a lot of the time and scoring a lot of goals in such a small time. When I went to try and bring him in he told me he had a good opportunity abroad and wanted to take that. Now to join the club, seeing him here is very nice.”
Duk earned rave reviews in his first season in Scotland but his relationship soured when he went AWOL to try and force a move in the summer. Thelin has brought him back into the fold and the striker is expected to run down his contract and leave at the end of the season.
De Almeida thinks it will be good to have Duk over the coming weeks, so he can learn and understand what it takes for fellow Portuguese players to come and hit the ground in the Scottish Premiership.
He explained: “It is good for me that he is Portuguese and through him I can understand even better how a Latin player, who comes from the south, feels when he comes to the Premiership. “To see the difference from the education in Portugal and Scotland is very different and you need to be aware of the difference.”
De Almeida’s relationship with Thelin was a major factor in him coming to Aberdeen. They first came across each other when he was scouting in Scandinavia for Porto. They built-up a rapport and Thelin asked him to join his Elfsborg coach staff.
“During this time I had the opportunity to control the Scandinavian markets” De Almeida confirmed. “From that opportunity, I met Jimmy in 2018, when I went to Sweden to see Elfsborg and other teams. It was a market that we were close to on some target players.
“There was a good match between myself and Jimmy and he invited me to become his assistant coach in the 2019 season. It was an amazing job there with a good opportunity to rebuild the squad. The same challenge as we have right now. I understand the game model better, doing scouting and having the data to support us. After that because of some questions with my family we needed to move back.”
He became sporting director at Rio Ave. De Almeida joined the Qatar Sports League as a senior scout focusing on the identification and evaluation of strikers and then came to Aberdeen in the summer, when Thelin made his move from Elfsborg. He knows the exact players and requirements of the Swede.
De Almeida, speaking to RedTV, said: “What our coach wants to build is a dominant team that can be a top three and stable club in Scotland. We want to play a dominant game and for that you need players who are willing to have the ball under pressure.
“They need to make the game safe. The game starts from the goalkeeper. We will want to increase the individual qualities of the players on the ball. We want to increase and we want the players here to increase their levels as well. Doing a good job is improving our own players and then bringing in the right ones to improve the ones we already have.”
Sivert Nilsen is another that De Almeida knows well and he is exactly the type of personality that he wants to bring to Aberdeen. He added: “Sivert was someone I worked with at Elfsborg before. He was the sort of player who was a game changer for us.
“He found the right one, with the leadership and the ability to win a lot of balls, allowing us to be higher on the pitch. When I see him at the club that is massive because he is the type of personality I am trying to bring to the club.”