UAE Team Emirates has expressed interest in signing Detunink-Quickstep's Joao Almeida, the Portuguese rider's agent confirmed.

"There is interest from UAE Team Emirates and other teams on the World Tour, but João Almeida still has one year left on his contract with Detunink-Quickstep," Almeida's agent, a former professional with the Corso Sports Agency. João Correira, told the Portuguese newspaper A Bola on Wednesday.

Almeida joins Detunink Quick Step this season from Hagens Berman Axiom, an American under-23 team run by Axel Merckx, where he won the summer Vuelta a Burgos with teammates Remco Evenpole and Bahrain He showed glimpses of his ability this year, finishing third overall behind teammate Remco Evenpole and Bahrain McLaren's Mikel Landa.

He then finished second behind Astana's Alexandre Vlasov in the one-day Giro delle Miglia in mid-August, and joined the DeKuninck-Quick Step team that won the team time trial stage of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartoli He joined the team.

In October, Almeida competed in the Giro d'Italia, finishing second in the opening stage time trial behind TT world champion Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers).

In the absence of the injured Evenpoel, Almeida was the leader of the Dečuninck-Quick-Step team and, with the support of his teammates, rode brilliantly, holding onto the pink jersey until stage 18, Laghi di Cancano.

However, on the final stage, Sestriere, he finished fourth behind stage winner and Giro winner Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers).

"Joxane Maxine, the main sporting director of UAE Team Emirates, is well aware of Joanne's skills.

"The way we work at the Corso Sports Agency is known to the teams and there is a lot of talk, but without concrete proposals, everything is just an assumption," he said of the agency he founded with Ken Sommer and Giro winner Giohegan Hart, 2019 road race champion Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), and time trial specialist Mikkel Bjarg (UAE Team Emirates), among many others.

Under current UCI rules, all parties must agree to the transfer if the athlete is still under contract.