Domingos Soares de Oliveira: “Biggest challenge at Benfica is to keep the young talents”

The Sport Lisboa e Benfica is present, for the second year in a row, at the Web Summit, considered the biggest conference worldwide of technology and entrepeneurship. Domingos Soares de Oliveira, CEO of the Club, has participated, at the early afternoon , in the conference “Legacy vs money: How can the clubs compete?”.

“The biggest challenge in a Club like Benfica and in such a small country as Portugal is to keep young talents. The biggest difficulty is to compete against richer clubs. It will be normal to pay 100, 200 millions of euros for a player, because it takes the club to another level of expression. If UEFA do not do anything, players such as Ronaldo, Neymar and Messi will cost much more. That is the biggest challenge for clubs like ours, because it's not so difficult to manage clubs like Barcelona or Real Madrid”, analyzed Domingos Soares de Oliveira.

“The salaries paid by clubs such as Manchester City, PSG and Real Madrid make it even more complicated for us”, added the CEO of Benfica.

But money it is not all: talent is above all and also a winning club on the field.

“This year we had profit, but, if the results are not the best on the pitch, the supporters will be disappointed.  We cannot fail on or outside the pitch. It's important to have in mind that, in addition to goals, we have to increase the tickets sales, as well as the merchandising. It's hard to keep this stability”, he said.

“We have to keep winning and our biggest challenge is to keep the young talents. Therefore, we have to find alternative sources to have more money. Our vision is to go overseas - China, United Sates and United Kingdom -, to expand our brand and generate more money. That's the challenge for the next ten years.  At Benfica, we never say it's impossible, but we want to do different”, declared Domingos Soares de Oliveira.

The Club's CEO also talked about the Benfica's Training Center. 

“Existing a database, we know more about the players and we can predict the models, interact and learn. This has been made along with Microsoft”, he revealed.

“But more important is the talent. The rest comes later. If they have talent they will always have success and this we cannot forget. Those players who we were able to retain a little bit longer are those who have the Club's culture. We can see this with our captain, Luisão, who is 36 and plays with Rúben Dias on his side, who is 20. We are working well”, concluded Domingos Soares de Oliveira

Text: Sónia Antunes and Filipa Fernandes Garcia

Pics: Isabel Cutileiro / SL Benfica