Cardoso Varela: Porto linked with move for Dinamo Zagreb winger

Portugal and Angola youth attacker Cardoso Varela, currently at Dinamo Zagreb, is being linked with a return to Porto in a move that would take the 17-year-old back to the Portuguese giants he left in 2024.

The left winger, who was born in Luanda and is contracted to Dinamo until 30 June 2028, has emerged as a potential target for the Liga Portugal club as they assess wide options for the coming seasons. Any deal would require Porto to negotiate with Dinamo, with Varela currently valued at around €1 million.

Varela joined Dinamo’s first team on 1 July 2025 after a spell with the Croatian club’s under-19s and has since begun to break into the senior side, featuring in the SuperSport HNL and in European competition. He has also appeared in the Europa League for the Croatian champions, scoring once in 190 minutes of action, performances that are understood to have drawn renewed attention from Portugal.

The winger was part of the Dinamo Zagreb squad that completed a domestic double in 2025-26, winning both the Croatian league title and the national cup, further raising his profile on the continental stage.

Porto know the player well from his time in their academy, where he progressed through the under-15 and under-17 sides before departing in 2024. A move back to Portugal would represent a quick step up for a player who only entered senior football last season, but for now Varela remains tied to a long-term deal in Zagreb, where he wears the number 23 shirt and continues his development.