Rui Costa and Jorge Jesus reached an understanding about the separation in a phone call late at night, early on Monday, and sealed the agreement to terminate the contract, at the training and training center, in Seixal, yesterday morning and with presence of the coach’s lawyer, Luís Miguel Henrique. Both the president of Benfica and the coach agreed in the opinion that the situation was unsustainable and that the best solution was to end the call.
The clash between Jorge Jesus and Pizzi, the day before yesterday, before training, and the squad’s reaction to the incident precipitated the decisions. In the lecture before the session, in an auditorium at Seixal, the coach threw himself at the midfielder, one of the captains of the team – he accused Pizzi of having insulted him, in the Dragão dressing room, after the defeat against FC Porto, in the Portuguese Cup (Jesus was punished). And he also said that if he was at the Pizzi bathhouse he would not do it, asking the midfielder to repeat what he had said. Pizzi did so in front of the entire squad. He denied having insulted Jesus, confirmed that he had used bad words in the expression of discontent, considered the team’s performance shameful and that players and coaches had to give much more. The reaction at Dragão heated up with a discussion between Pizzi and one of Jesus’ assistants, Tiago Oliveira, prompting the intervention of Luisão, the technical director, who did not like the midfielder’s intervention. Pizzi’s explanation did not satisfy Jesus, who understood that the midfielder had exceeded the limits, and told him that he would not go back to training with the squad. The reaction of the players as a whole was then spontaneous. Jesus ordered everyone to go to the field, they all went to the bathhouse.
It was then necessary the intervention of Rui Costa, who convinced the players, the day before yesterday, to train and guaranteed that Pizzi, who apologized in the meantime, would rejoin the squad the following morning, that is, yesterday morning. That alone led players to agree to work with Jesus.
In the conversation at night/dawn, Jesus told Rui Costa that he was free to do whatever he wanted, he put the place at his disposal.
Read in full in the print edition or digital of THE BALL.
– .
