Benfica and HP linked for two years

Benfica and HP announced on Monday, September 18, that they will be partners for the next two years. The agreement goes beyond the American brand's name appearing on the jerseys of the Club's men's and women's youth football teams (up to U-19).

It was at the Benfica Campus in Seixal, in the presence of vice-president Rui Passo, and in the hands of Pedro Mil-Homens, general director of Sport Lisboa e Benfica's Youth Football, and José Correia, general director of the new HP Portugal, that Benfica and HP symbolically sealed the partnership between the two major international brands.

The motto for the birth of this relationship couldn't be more noble. "To inspire innovation and progress in people and institutions," said José Correia, who then explained...

"We have technology that we believe can make a difference on this Campus, that can make a difference and help boost what Benfica's youth development program is all about. We believe that we can help athletes, these young people, to go further, not only in terms of progress from a sporting point of view, but also in terms of progress as people and in their school environment," he said.

The general manager of the new HP Portugal also spoke about his company's ambitions for the relationship that will run for the next two years. "We want, in some way, to have a partnership here where, with what our skills are, and what the opportunities are here on campus, we can work with Benfica to find ways of bringing value and doing more. We are very confident and very committed to what we can do", he detailed.

For his part, Pedro Mil-Homens, noting that HP's mission is to "create technologies to help inspire people" and that Benfica's youth development program works "with young people at ages where technology is now a part", being "almost an extension of the hand", highlighted the fact that the club had reached this agreement.

"Finding a partner who is willing to work with us, and also help create inspiration beyond the technological component, is certainly a challenge for us that I'm very pleased to see. It's an international brand of reference, of trust, because it's a brand we've become accustomed to seeing over the years. Just like Benfica's youth football, it's also an international benchmark, and it's completely accepted. We have the ingredients for a good partnership over the next two years," he said.

As well as being one of the sponsors of the jerseys of the men's and women's youth teams - up to Under-19 - HP will not see its role reduced to that, as José Correia explained. "Benfica, through its youth development program, ends up giving us the scope we were looking for in this type of project. In general, HP always tries to connect with the local communities in which it is present. Benfica allows this. Because of the project, because of the age group, because of the geographical coverage that the youth development program encompasses. That's why we're very interested in working here in various areas," he said.

Regarding these same "aspects", the general manager of the new HP Portugal spoke of the "global sustainability policy", one of the brand's "pillars", as well as "digital equity", which is in line with the Club's vision in this area.

"We believe that with Benfica we have room to work. There are several thousand athletes, not all of whom will have easy access to the same tools. Here we have the opportunity to identify those cases, because the principle of digital equity is that in new technologies no one can be left behind. On the other hand, promoting academic merit is very important to us, and that's an area of great focus here at Campus. We're going to find areas to develop ideas that we can work on together, in addition to our branding on the shirts," he specified.

Since the issue of academic merit is of paramount importance to the club and its youngsters, not least because being a footballer is something that "doesn't happen to everyone", Pedro Mil-Homens recalled one of the phrases present in one of the rooms at Benfica Campus: "Here we nurtured men and some players."

Taking advantage of this phrase, Sport Lisboa e Benfica's Director General for Youth Development stressed that the education and preparation of all young players is one of the Club's main missions.

"In this development of men, the whole digital equity component is important so that tomorrow we can find in everyone, but also in those who didn't reach the sporting heights that their childhood dreams allowed them to have, the feeling that their time at Benfica, beyond the sporting component, gave them the tools for life," he said.

At the end of the press conference, José Correia spoke to BTV about the added value this partnership will have for both brands.

"HP is a world leader in technology, with computers and printers. We believe that since we're talking about Benfica, about a young generation that is increasingly interacting with technology in such a constant way, we can somehow make the connection and add some value to all of this. Young people spend a lot of time with technology, but they don't always spend time with the technology that can create digital skills for them. Because of what we stand for, because of what our values are, and because digital equity is a very important part for us, that is, that everyone has access to technology, we also want to bring this whole concept to the thousands of athletes that Benfica's youth teams address. Around here, they have access to technology, but the way they use it isn't always the one that will give them the most value in the future. They may become great footballers, but they also need to have digital skills and technologies that will allow them to grow, not only from a sports point of view, but above all from a personal and educational point of view," ha said.