Over the years, and since the inauguration of Benfica Campus in 2006, a lot has been invested in Benfica’s youth. Not just the players, but also the infrastructure, as well as everyone involved in the entire project and process.

As the project has progressed, it’s been applauded by many near and far, and even came away with the 2019 Best Academy Award. Along with that success and global recognition, there have also been various criticisms, most originating from Benfica fans themselves.

When will we be a club that is able to depend on the Benfica Campus as the main provider for the senior squad?

We’ve all heard that question over and over, it’s exhausting. So, what’s the answer?

MORE FAILURES THAN SUCCESS STORIES

Let’s be honest – given the amount of players coming through the youth system, for every one player who is good enough to compete at the top level, there were likely thousands who didn’t make it. Now when you think about guys like Ruben or João Felix for example, how many thousands didn’t make it for Benfica to find them?

It’s always easy to look back in retrospect and say – well, we should have made more money on that guy, or this guy. Of course, but we can also look back in some cases and appreciate the transfer fees that the club managed to obtain for players who didn’t end up being anything more than average at best.

How many times over the years have we caught ourselves talking about a talented youth player, which we think is going to be the next big name on the world stage? All it takes is a few good performances and the media are already comparing them to some of the world’s greatest.

Exhibit A – Roderick Miranda. I remember after a handful of appearances, there was a headline in one of the main Portuguese newspapers comparing him to Carlos Mozer. Where is he now? If you really want to know, he’s at Wolverhampton likely contemplating his next career move.

Like him, there are many who arrived with a load of hype, and then fizzled out and went on with their lives without most fans even knowing where they ended up.

Exhibit B – Nelson Oliveira, Miguel Rosa, Miguel Vitor, Andre Carvalhas, João Teixeira, etc..

Of those names, Nelson Oliveira and Miguel Rosa are likely the two that stand out the most, with the former being sold to Norwich in 2017 for €5,85M.

I know, you’re likely shaking your head and saying, well what about the other guys like Bernardo Silva, or even João Cancelo.

Those two were a gamble that the club lost on. And you can point the finger at whoever you’d like, but at the time, Benfica sold Bernardo for €15,75M and Cancelo for €15M. Between the two, they played five matches for the senior squad. As I mentioned above, it’s always easy to look back in retrospect when things didn’t pan out the way we expected them, to then criticize.

For some context – Ivan Cavaleiro (€15M), Helder Costa (€15M), and João Carvalho (€15M).

Just from these few examples, yes the club ended up losing out on two players who turned out to be absolutely top class at an early stage in their career, but that’s the life of football. You have to make difficult decisions, and sometimes, it pans out, and other times, it doesn’t. The hope is that you get the decisions right more often than not, and looking at some of the transfers Benfica has managed over the course of the last 15 years, I think it’s safe to say that the club has been able to develop and project their players to that next stage in their career, be that those who were from the youth academies, or brought into the club still at a young age, while in return taking on a significant amount of money.

Whether or not it was then invested properly is a whole different story.

THERE’S NO TIME TO WASTE

We as fans must come to the realization of something – while in years past, a lot of the Portuguese clubs featured a decent percentage of Portuguese players in their starting XI, in today’s world of football, that’s likely not going to happen.

Reason for that is money, and the second reason is time. I’m sure there are many other reasons, but let’s just stick with these two for now.

Money – there is a lot of it in the game today, and unfortunately the Portuguese League isn’t one of the main leagues that is able to profit from that. With all the broadcasting rights for the top five leagues in Europe, it’s nearly impossible for the top clubs in Portugal to compete with the likes of the Premier League, or even La Liga when it comes to salaries.

When a player leaves, the most recent example being Ruben Dias, it’s easy to say well he was sold for below the release clause. Yes, he was, but Ruben is a player who stayed with Benfica for years, and surely had a market over the last few, but he opted to stay.

If a club like Manchester City comes knocking on your door and offers you a contract that is significantly more than what you’re currently earning, of course, you’re going to want to take that next step. It’s not always about Benfica’s stance and what they want, there’s also a human element to this. Does the player want to move, does he feel it’s the right time, is it the right fit, etc..

Surely Benfica would have wanted to get more money from the transfer, but in a year that has impacted all clubs financially, and the pre-mature elimination from the Champions League, decisions need to be made, and unfortunately for us as fans, Ruben ended up being presented with a chance of a lifetime that he quite frankly couldn’t turn down.

That ties into the second reason, which is time.

These players have a short window to make their money. If and when you get the chance to take that next jump to a top league, especially the Premiere League where the relegation sides still make more money than the champions in Portugal, these players aren’t going to hesitate, and rightfully so.

The other aspect of the time factor is for Benfica.

As a club, the fans and the administration expect them to compete year in and year out in all competitions they are involved in. Being able to build a system where we are primarily dependent on our youth system, and we have a squad competitive enough to do that would take time, and lots of it.

For the sake of comparison, let’s look at our neighbors Sporting for example.

Year after year, they don’t invest heavily, and while they will have some decent spells of form, they for the most part over the last 15 or so years have very rarely truly been in the title race.

They’ve opted to take the approach of spending less on outside talent, and focusing on trying to develop and promote their youth. Sure, they’ve identified some good players, but, again, their fans can’t truthfully be happy with the almost approach. It’s going to reach a breaking point, so now with Benfica, there is no chance that our fans would be content with waiting years to build up this youth program to the point where it’s our main provider. The other aspect of this is that it’s not a guarantee either.

If we don’t invest and lose a title the criticism comes from all angles, yet, we talk about wanting our youth to be the primary provider?

The reality is that Benfica can be a club that invests in their youth academy, hoping to at least find one diamond in the rough, but, it’s very unlikely that we turn into a youth first, buy second club as it would be more difficult to truly compete on all fronts.