“Roger Schmidt is no longer the coach of Benfica. I confirm this. I want to thank him for all his efforts, two titles and for the players he has trained.” This was how Rui Costa announced the departure of the German coach, at a press conference in Seixal.
Speaking to journalists, the president of Benfica explained that it was decided that “it was time for change”.
“We felt it was time to change coaches, we are already looking to the future and working on the next coach who will be known in the near future”, he said, without confirming any names. Leonardo Jardim, one of the names put forward by the Portuguese press, was neither confirmed nor denied.
At the press conference, Rui Costa recalled that the new coach will not be able to work as he wants as soon as he is hired, because there are many players in his national teams.
“We have five or six players at Benfica Campus today; all the others are with their respective national teams and will have a few days off. When they return to work, between the middle and end of the week, we will already have the new coach working”, he said.
Regarding Schmidt’s renewal right after winning the title in 2022/23, the Benfica president admitted that he was hasty.
“We don’t have crystal balls. We believed in stability and in what we had achieved together in the first year. We thought it would be easier to repeat the success of the first year than to face the challenges of the second. We tried to understand what went wrong in the second season and tried to recover the performance of the first nine months, when everyone was dazzled by the team and the coach. It was based on that that I made the decision. I don’t play football on Mondays; I have to think about what is best at the moment. At that time, it seemed right to maintain continuity; now, the best thing is to separate and start a new cycle with a new coach”, he analyzed.
Still on Roger Schmidt, Rui Costa stressed that the relationship with Roger Schmidt is over, so “the separation will now be handled by the former coach’s lawyer”
“We believed that the best thing to do was to give Benfica a vote of confidence and stability, but these four matches have shown otherwise,” he said, before praising the German, despite the divorce.
“It’s always a disappointment for everyone who works there. There was an understanding, he’s a great man and I can’t forget that. The human relationship wasn’t affected in the slightest.”
Finally, Rui Costa recalled that nothing is lost, despite the team having lost five points in the first four rounds of the I Liga.
“I look to the future with great optimism. This start to the season, in which we lost 5 points, has exceeded all expectations. We didn’t have a performance that gave us confidence in relation to what the future would hold, hence the change. I hope that it will liven up the atmosphere, the players, and that it will bring a new feeling around the team. Even yesterday, in the draw with Moreirense, it wasn’t for lack of support from the fans, to whom I am grateful. I know they are always with the team. We have to turn this situation around, it only depends on ourselves. I am an optimist by nature and I fully believe in the strength of Benfica and the quality of the squad. I am convinced that this will be a positive season for the club”, he concluded.
This afternoon, Benfica had already announced that it was negotiating the termination of the contract with the German coach, in a statement sent to the Securities Market Commission (CMVM).
“Sport Lisboa e Benfica – Futebol, SAD informs about negotiations for the termination of coach Roger Schmidt’s contract”, can be read in the short note released by CMVM.
A long-announced dismissal
The German’s departure from the technical command of the ‘encarnados’ comes one day after the ‘eagles’ draw at Moreirense’s home ground (1-1), for the fourth round of the I Liga, in which Benfica is in sixth place, with seven points, the result of one defeat, two triumphs and one draw.
Schmidt, 57, arrived at Benfica at the start of the 2022/23 season, to replace Nélson Veríssimo – who had replaced Jorge Jesus in the middle of 2021/22 –, having ended the ‘encarnados’ trophy hiatus in that same year.
Without lifting any trophy since the 2019 Super Cup, the ‘eagles’ were crowned national champions for the 38th time, under the command of the German coach, in addition to having won the Super Cup, against FC Porto, a few months later.
The 2022/23 Champions League campaign, in which Benfica topped a group with Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus, before reaching the quarter-finals, where they were eliminated by Inter Milan, further reinforced Schmidt’s status among the Benfica fans.
So much so that the coach, who had initially signed a two-season contract with the club, ended up renewing his contract for another two years, until 2026, when his first season at the Lisbon club had not even been completed.
However, despite winning the Super Cup, last season fell far short of expectations, starting with the considerable drop in the quality of the team’s football, combined with the results in the Champions League, in which Benfica fell in the group stage (with four defeats, one win and one draw) and was relegated to the Europa League, being eliminated in that competition in the ‘quarter-finals’, against Marseille.
In the previous edition of the I Liga, in which they had 25 wins, five draws and four defeats, the ‘eagles’ finished second, 10 points behind champions Sporting, and were also eliminated in the semi-finals of the Portuguese Cup, by their Lisbon rivals, and of the League Cup, by Estoril Praia. In between, they suffered one of the heaviest defeats in recent years, at the home of another rival, FC Porto, by 5-0, in March.
In this new season, the team’s performance level did not register any improvement and the opposition to the coach became even greater, particularly after the match against Moreirense, which marked the end of Schmidt’s connection to Benfica.
