The president of Benfica, Rui Costa, considered this Sunday that “the process has been well done” since he was elected, in October 2021, and assured that he is “an extremely proud man” to lead the club in which he became soccer player.
“I feel more adult and more prepared. The first year was extraordinarily difficult. As for football, it didn’t go as we expected. For the moment, I am trying to follow the path that all Benfica fans want to be real, which involves returning to our conquests and national hegemony and playing an important role at the international level. I do not come from offices, but from sports. It is our approach, without ever neglecting the club’s finances”, stressed the coach, at the Thinking Football Summit, in Porto.
Rui Costa, 50, surpassed Francisco Benítez in the club’s early elections, with 84.48% of the votes, three months after Luís Filipe Vieira, who had led Benfica since 2003, suspended his duties, for being involved in the ‘Cartão Rojo’.
“At the end of a year, there is still a lot to do. Dream chair? I am a fan of Benfica from head to toe. For all the journey I’ve done at the club, I don’t hide the fact that I dreamed of one day being president of Benfica, but not in these conditions. Everything rushed as you know and the only thing I did was not back down or hide at that moment. Benfica is a giant. No matter how much you do, there are a thousand things to achieve, ”he shared.
The absence of first-team titles in 2021/22 contrasted with the unprecedented success in the UEFA Youth Under-19 League, in an “achievement of a decade of work” that led Rui Costa to reiterate that “the work that came from behind it was being well done”.
“We have nine players working directly with the first team this year. We will have nine to 10 of the formation in the 2022 World Cup. This is our great satisfaction and the Benfica project. He said that he would give the Benfica formation a lot of space. In the Portuguese team there are two players who have asserted themselves: António Silva and Gonçalo Ramos. The objective is to train more athletes and provide them with better conditions for them to develop”, he pointed out.
Faced with the Seixal training center as a “source of talent” to “show the world a giant club”, whose name “is historic worldwide”, the former Portuguese international advocated the “internationalization of the Benfica brand” to soften the distance with the First League to the “prominence” that the five main European championships contemplate.
“The clubs have great economic difficulties to compete with the leading teams, but even so we have the great advantage of the work done and the demand for national and international talent. On the other hand, we have our players. I’m not even going to mention Eusébio in the 1966 World Cup, but we had Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo with Ballon d’Ors. He represents a great deal of national talent and the ability to fight against adversity. We have to be proud to be able to match those who believe they are superior to us, ”he shot.
With a career as a midfielder that began (1990-1994) and ended at La Luz (2006-2008), Rui Costa defended that, watching Benfica’s training sessions, he feels football “with a completely different rhythm” than his height, when The players “were already at the limit of their potential.
“It is very easy to say that we could have been much better. I think so, but I don’t like to make these comparisons. I prefer that, with the evolution of the world, we manage to evolve in football and give more conditions to the players. At that time, Benfica did not have a B team or these conditions, but I benefited from being on loan at a club. [Fafe, em 1990/91] who gave me everything and made me grow faster”, he concluded.
The Thinking Football conference takes place between Friday and this Sunday, at the Pavilhão Rosa Mota, in Porto, under the unprecedented organization of the Portuguese Professional Football League (LPFP).
Source: Observadora
