The Ball – “I would like to finish my career at Benfica” (Football)

In an interview with ‘Mais Futebol’, Manuel Fernandez, who terminated his contract with Sepahan (Iran), at the age of 37, admitted that he did not want to end his career and revealed his desire to play another season. Share your desire.

“Honestly, it would be ideal for you to end up at Benfica, but that is something that will never be possible for a number of reasons, even less so at this time. So I can’t give you a definitive answer. I know Portugal is a sales country and recruitment is usually from The perspective of doing business. I’m 37 and that perspective doesn’t exist, but I can clearly offer other things: experience, for example. I can be a mentor to young people. As I said before, I’m open to anything and it will depend on several factors. It will be The main factor is the way the team plays, because the way I understand and see football has to be played a certain way », highlights the midfielder.

“The club of my life is Benfica. Not only because I went there when I was very young, but because it was the club that helped me achieve my career. When I say help me, I mean things like paying for the card, worrying that I got good grades in school, and knowing that if I don’t do well in school I won’t be recruited, for example. Things like that, where there was concern to help me grow and create a base for the rest of my playing career, ”shares the Portuguese international, who adds:“[O Benfica] Gave me many foundations. I was also very fortunate to have several former Benfica players as coaches, who passed on to me the Benfica values ​​and friendship. It is a pleasure today to go to the Estádio da Luz and to be able to talk to these former coaches, now in a different way, but I know what helped me in other times.

Manuel Fernandez continues to visit the Estadio da Luz: “I went several times this year. I haven’t been there for a long time, but this year, when I was in Portugal and there was a home match, I always went to the stadium. At first I didn’t go because I didn’t leave for Benfica either, it should have ended in a much better way for both parties, but it didn’t work out for the best. That’s why I always felt it wasn’t the right time to go watch a game, and so I was away for so long. And when I say a long time, I mean another decade, probably.”

The player shares how the audience received him: «The talk is always the same, it should not be left early, always on this record, but in general I don’t remember any negative incident, honestly. There may have been one or two people who wanted to tell me something, but didn’t. This season I went four or five times and the approach was always the same, which is fun in a way because I played three years in the first team and that was 20 years ago. A sign that I did something right.”

When asked about a great season, Manuel Fernandez highlighted the title with the Eagles in 2005: «It was a good season. We didn’t have the best team, which is FC Porto, and we didn’t play the best football, because that was Sporting, but Peseiro, with merit and some luck there, we managed to win the championship. We didn’t even get to 70 points, this year Benfica won with 87 and FC Porto came in second with 85. That reveals a bit about what that championship was like, but we can’t give credit to this team: Benfica was trying to find again, There was no field to train on, there was no training center and we trained in a different place every day. I was even beaten a bit by Seixal before leaving and I am very happy to see what has been done, because today Benfica has a very good structure. She has the organization a great team always needs.”