Benfica’s president said on Monday that the futures of striker Gonçalo Ramos and defender Otamendi will be known soon as the current moment is to celebrate football’s 38th league title.
Before the dinner in honor of the recent achievement, at Convento do Beato, in Lisbon, the president of the ‘Águias’ did not want to talk about the future of the young 21-year-old striker, who scored a total of 27 goals in the 2022/20 season. 23. season , nor Argentina captain Otamendi, 35 and whose contract is about to expire.
“[Os adeptos] You know at the right time [se ficam ou vão embora]. You will know everything in due time. Soon of course. Today it is still time to celebrate the 38th,” Rui Costa told the journalists present.
In winning the national championship, the first “incarnated” as president, Rui Costa revealed the game in which he felt that the scepter would not escape, now targeting the “hardest”.
“If I had to pick a game where I really felt like the title was no longer running away, it would be the game with [Sporting de] Braga. Now comes the hardest part and to understand that you don’t have to be president or play football for long: winning after winning is always harder than winning the first title,” he warned.
On Sunday, midfielder João Mário, one of the most influential in Roger Schmidt’s team, resigned from the Portuguese national team thanks to his 23 goals and 13 assists, winning Euro 2016 and the 2019 League of Nations.
“As a Portuguese, he is not a good player in the national team and even if he was not my player, I respect João Mario’s decision. They are players.” [João Mário e Rafa, que renunciou igualmente em setembro de 2022] who represented the selection for many years. You get to a point in your career where you think, or might think, that you can’t give anything more to the national team, that you can’t reconcile it anymore,” he said.
Benfica were crowned Portuguese football champions for the 38th time on Saturday after beating Santa Clara 3-0 at home in a match of the 34th and final round of the Portuguese First League.
After a three-season ‘drought’, the ‘incarnates’ returned to celebrate a league title and finished the I Liga with 87 points, two more than FC Porto.
Source: DN
