PEP AND PORTUGAL THANKING

THEY had a problem at Benfica. A nice problem, but it needed correcting. Ruben Dias talked too much. Too involved. Too desperate to demand the best from those around him. Dias was 18 and fresh into Benfica’s B team. He had shown leadership skills since joining the academy a decade earlier but needed fine-tuning. He was trying to be an all-encompassing leader of men before he had become a man himself. ‘We had some challenges,’ grins Benfica B coach Nelson Verissimo. ‘Ruben wanted to communicate with the whole team from full backs to strikers. We explained that he shouldn’t wear himself out too much. Physically he was no more developed than his colleagues. But mentally and emotionally, he was clearly above average.’ Benfica take great pride in nurturing not only talent but the character of their many academy products. They use Dias as a case study for their current crop of teenagers.

Manchester City trio Dias (right), Bernardo Silva and Joao Cancelo were due to make up one corner of Portugal’s dressing room this summer, before Cancelo’s positive Covid-19 test ruled him out. All three were made in Benfica, as the club slogan goes, and are flourishing with the Premier League champions. It is no coincidence that Pep Guardiola and City’s sporting director Txiki Begiristain, renowned for their attention to detail on personalities, have leaned towards players from Lisbon. ‘Ruben was like everyone else — they spent 90 per cent of the time playing offensively in the