“Vlachodemus represented Benfica for five years and deserves the greatest respect from me and all the Benfica fans. After what happened and the realization that he could lose space, his will was to find a solution. This was never left out of consideration.” “Last season, two days before the market ended, he had a very advantageous offer from Ajax, but we couldn’t even consider it, as the market was closed and we had no solution.” When evaluating the national champions’ performance in the closed season, in an interview with BTV.

Having played as a starter since his arrival in Luz, in 2018/19, Odysseas Flachodemus lost his place after the defeat at Boavista (3-2), in the opening round of the Spanish League, which the “Panthers” decided by returning. Halfway through the compensation period, having left at the end of the market for €4.9m fixed, plus $4.4m bonus.

“The arrival of (Anatoly) Trobin not only prevented competition for goal, but also the possible departure of Vlachodemos. An offer came from Nottingham, which was beneficial to Benfica financially, but mainly for the athlete. The Premier League was one of his goals and after a thoughtful dialogue we decided that The best solution for both parties is to give in to this suggestion and have the player look for another experience, their cycle is over, we are always grateful that Flashodemus did it.

Rui Costa expressed “full confidence” in the young Samuel Soares, who took over the goalkeeping for the next three encounters, and in the reinforcement Anatoly Trubin, who was contracted from the Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk for 10 ME, plus one due to the implementation of the goals.

“It was known that we were going to look for another goalkeeper. At first, Tropin was not in Benfica’s plans, because we thought he was almost unreachable, until we realized we had a window of opportunity to be able to get access to this goalkeeper, who is “a reference all over Europe.” . It wasn’t reasonable for him to be with us if he came to the end of his contract. There were clubs of greater financial dimensions with the possibility of offering him other paths, but we expected that maneuver and got the goalkeeper that I am now. “And he indicated that he is convinced that he will be one of the best in Europe in the near future.

Also appearing at the entrance was Turkish midfielder Orkon Kokcu, who became the biggest reinforcement in Luz’ club history, when he arrived from Dutch champions Feyenoord for €25m, with five more in variables, but Rui Costa underestimated the amount involved.

“Kokjo has been known for a long time. I can say that, since the departure of Enzo (Fernandez to Chelsea, in February), if we had had time on the market or if the operation had been done at the start of the season.” The month (January), is the player we chose. At 22 years old, he is exceptional and has a great read of the game. Nobody has any doubts about this value. We also had the conditions and the goal for this position was, we didn’t hesitate at all”, said the president, in a closed season in which Benfica signed seven athletes.

David Jurasic (formerly Slavia Braga, 14 years old) and Juan Bernat, on loan from Paris Saint-Germain, came to fill the left side of the defense with the departure of Spaniard Grimaldo, who ended his contract after seven and a half seasons. In Luz, he signed with the German team Bayer Leverkusen.

“We were doing our best to keep him at the club. We haven’t completed the negotiations yet, but we also understood, as he made it clear, that he was respectfully looking for another challenge. He didn’t fail to represent us until the last day with a great performance”. “Professionalism and dignity in those last challenges (from 2022/23), which were necessary to win the title, Grimaldo was at very high levels.”