Rúben Dias: a pillar with exclusive numbers in the National Team

The only starter in all the National Team matches after the 2018 World Cup, Rúben Dias is also the most used player and surpassed the historic record of Humberto Coelho: at the years and six months of age, he already is the centre-back with more consecutive matches for Portugal with his age.

After establishing himself in the center of Benfica's defense, Rúben Dias has been a permanent bet from Fernando Santos in the new cycle of the Portuguese national team. Apart from being the most used player in the National Team cycle after the Russia World Cup – with a total of 507 minutes –, he was also the only who featured in the starting XI in the six matches played (friendly matches against Croatia and Scotland and double fixtures against Italy and against Poland for the Nations League).

Nurtured at Caixa Futebol Campus, Rúben Dias has made a better streak of matches than the historic Benfica player Humberto Coelho had made with the same age, who made his debut for the Portuguese national team with only 18 years of age. Rúben Dias surpassed, in the recent match against Italy, the current vice-president of the Portuguese Federation, who with the same age as Rúben, only had four consecutive matches.

A starter in the Senior National Team since the start of the season, after a World Cup in which he was among the players named, Benfica's centre back has been highly praised.

"Rúben is an excellent professional, with a great ability. A lot of good centre-backs are coming in. Today we have a batch of players with a lot of quality and ambition and adding work-rate to the quality, Portugal has a bright future", claimed Pepe, the seasoned centre-back from the National team central.

With Benfica, Rúben Dias has racked up 18 matches this season – all as a starter– and 1575 minutes played.

Text: Filipa Fernandes Garcia

Pics: FPF