“Look at Ederson of Manchester City. When he came to me he was just a lad from the favelas, too scared to leave his own penalty area. Now he takes bigger risks than anybody in the Premier League. Bernardo Silva is top as well. We sold him to Monaco and after a few weeks he was speaking French on TV, he’s an example. This club gives the boys life skills to grow.” Luís Nascimento, the head coach of Benfica’s under-15 team – who have been crowned national champions in four of the last six seasons – is talking to me at the club’s impressive Caixa Futebol Campus in Seixal on the banks of the River Tagus, a 20-minute ferry ride away from the south side of Lisbon.
In 2006, some fellow by the name Eusébio opened the football centre, which houses 65 kids from around the globe. The factory boasts nine pitches, 20 dressing rooms, two auditoriums, three state-of-the-art gyms and – the crème de la crème – a “360S simulator” in a lab where players work on their technique, go through video analysis and do nutritional and psychological tests. The simulator is like the Footbonaut, first seen at Borussia Dortmund, but Benfica’s version has robotic-like players that move along the walls of each side of the cage. The youngsters are tested on their reaction speeds, vision and execution when aiming for the moving targets after controlling the ball inside the 10-foot circle.
“Youth football is a fundamental area for Benfica, with sporting, social and financial benefits,” says Nascimento. “We do not talk exclusively about ‘training’, we refer also to ‘educating’. The academic performance of our players is monitored and encouraged at all levels. The mission is to guarantee the quality of technical training and educational enrichment of players of all age groups, with a focus on the integration into the first-team, promoting human values such as respect, responsibility, solidarity, justice and tolerance.”
The Under-15 team arrived to the training ground for their session and every single player walked across the office to shake my hand. They all greeted me with “boa tarde” – including the pair who were busy making fun of the security guard’s slightly balding hair, all in good fun. I was struck by the feeling that this is a special place and that I was lucky to be there, so just imagine how special these youngsters feel.
There’s a level of respect around the club. Players are on first-name terms with staff, exchanging pleasantries with kitchen workers and holding doors for cleaners. While Benfica have gained a reputation as a selling club, these youngsters know their development is in good hands. At the end of last season, 54 of Benfica’s Under-21s were offered professional contracts, with the money made from outgoing players pumped back into the academy. In the last three years alone, Benfica have made more than £230m from selling academy products.