Burnley have completed the permanent signing of midfielder Florentino from Benfica, with the club confirming on 12 June that the mandatory purchase clause in his loan deal has been triggered. The move closes out a transfer structured on deadline day last summer, when Burnley took the 26-year-old on a season-long loan for around €2m with an obligation to buy for a further €24m, taking the total package to roughly €26m.
Scott Parker had wanted Florentino for years, having tried to sign him for Fulham back in 2020 before he chose a loan move to Monaco instead. When the chance came round again last August, Parker moved for him on deadline day to add composure and defensive know-how to a Burnley midfield gearing up for life back in the Premier League. Florentino made his debut against Liverpool in September and quickly became a fixture in the side, valued for his reading of the game, his tackle timing and his ability to keep the ball moving under pressure.
For Benfica, letting Florentino go closed the book on a player who had been at the club since he was 13 and made 181 senior appearances, many of them as the midfield anchor in front of the back four. His departure raised eyebrows among supporters, but the club had already begun reshaping that area of the pitch, signing Richard Ríos from Palmeiras for around €27m and bringing in Enzo Barrenechea on loan, which pushed Florentino down the pecking order. The fee also helped ease budget pressure at the Estádio da Luz, ranking among Benfica's biggest sales of that summer behind João Neves's move to Paris Saint-Germain and Álvaro Carreras's switch to Real Madrid.
Florentino's first season in England was a mixed one. He made 31 Premier League appearances, 25 of them starts, and was regularly among Burnley's most active players in the tackle, but he could not prevent the club going down. Burnley were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2025-26 season, and Scott Parker left Turf Moor by mutual consent in April once the drop was confirmed, with assistant Mike Jackson seeing out the final games in interim charge.
The permanent deal for Florentino went through regardless, a sign Burnley see him as part of the rebuild rather than a Premier League player they can no longer justify. The club have since appointed Nicky Hayen, formerly of Club Brugge and Genk, as their new head coach on a three-year contract, and Florentino is expected to be a senior figure in a Burnley midfield aiming for an immediate return to the top flight. He'll be tested from the off, with a Carabao Cup tie against Notts County followed by the Championship opener at home to West Ham United on 17 August.
At 26 and with a four-year contract now in place, Florentino arrives at this Burnley side with more experience of English football than most of his new teammates, having already played a full Premier League season under his belt. Whether that experience translates into goals up the other end remains to be seen, but as a shield in front of the defence and a reliable outlet in possession, he gives Hayen a proven option to build the Championship campaign around.