Analysis of Benfica’s winter reinforcements in the 21st century; Marcos Leonardo’s mission is to go against tradition; Brazilian is the 40th player signed in January since 2000
Marcos Leonardo is Benfica’s 40th reinforcement in the winter market of this century and will have the task of breaking with a tradition: the majority of those who arrived in the middle of the season (not counting loanees) were unable to leave a trace of success . For every Grimaldo there were three Caroles: only 23 percent were relevant. In other words: for every one who did well, three others were not missed.
news-item-description ellipsis-2-line">Former Santos striker costs the Reds 18 million euros; Under-20 international for Brazil signs until 2029 and has a clause of €150 million
The problem in this past will be more in the quality of the players hired and not in the timing, but it confirms the Eagles’ historical difficulties in finding the right men to solve immediate problems.
Using factors such as sporting performance and financial return as criteria, only nine out of 39 met these requirements. It started with João Tomás (from Académica, in January 2000), who managed to score 20 goals in 46 games before being transferred to Betis. Tiago followed in 2002, Geovanni in 2003, Fyssas in 2004 and Nuno Assis in 2005 (of these, only the Portuguese, transferred a year earlier to Chelsea, was not champion with Giovanni Trapattoni).
In the second half of the first decade of the 10s, there was only one name that would have an impact on the club: David Luiz arrived in Lisbon on a cold winter morning, originating from the Brazilian state of Bahia. An unknown central defender at the time, but discovered by the Reds’ scouting, who managed to get him for half a season on loan and pay just €500,000 later on. The rest of the story is known: adored by fans, champion and transferred in 2011 (also in the winter market) to Chelsea for €25 million.
The second decade of the 21st century was also not very successful in terms of January reinforcements. In the first season, with Jorge Jesus in charge, four players joined the squad: three to join the squad (all from Brazil) and a young goalkeeper who would not join the first team, but a name for the future and obliged to rotate on another emblem.
The trio formed by Éder Luís, Kardec and Airton will not appear in the history books of the Reds; the other would later be considered one of the best in goal and worthy of the mural of champions in the new Estádio da Luz: Jan Oblak.
From 2010 to this date, only two more footballers came in cold but brought heat to the stands: Jardel (285 games and five-time champion) and Grimaldo, considered by many to be the best left-back that Benfica has had in many years. The Spaniard arrived in January 2016 (after four and a half seasons at Barcelona B) and since then no other winter reinforcement has made such an impact.
Benfica Reinforcements THE BALL
Eight years have passed and it is now up to the young striker acquired from Santos to enter the list of good buys for January. He knows he will have time for that, despite the competition being reinforced with Arthur Cabral’s renewed status.
2024-01-11 19:50:00
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