"It's a very proud feeling"

INTERVIEW WITH BTV

Manu joins SL Benfica until 2030! In his first statements to BTV as a player for the club, the 23-year-old Portuguese midfielder said he was “happy and ready” for this new and challenging step in his career. “I felt it was the right time,” he said.

Manu was announced and presented, on Monday afternoon, January 20, as a new addition to Sport Lisboa e Benfica's professional soccer team. Joy, pride and ambition were the motto in the midfielder's first statements.

"It's a very proud feeling. It's an important step in my career that I've been looking forward to for some time. I felt it was the right time, the moment I was ready to take on a challenge of this magnitude. The word that comes to mind most is pride," he said to BTV.

As it's also a national transfer, and you're already used to this league, do you think it will be easier for you to adapt?

Yes, adapting will always be easier, because I'm sure everyone will do their best to make it happen. And I'm also going to do my best to adapt, so that I can be on the pitch as soon as possible to help out.

For those who don't know him, who is Manu and what can he add to the team both on and off the pitch?

I'm a player who loves to have the ball, to get others playing. I'm an ambitious player, above all, and that's also reflected in the way I work every day and on match day, which is the litmus test. I think that's a bit of it, although the position also means I have to have other characteristics, work hard, steal balls, help the team to be more aggressive, duels, whether on the ground or in aerial duels, a bit of it.

What goals do you have on an individual and collective level?

I have many goals, many dreams to fulfill. The biggest of them all is to be a champion, to win titles for Benfica. That's the mentality, I see myself very much in that mentality, and I'm going to work hard to achieve those goals.

Lastly, I'd like to ask you to send a message to the fans.

Everyone knows the strength they have, the power they instill in the team, they really are a 12th man, and we know perfectly well that when things are going well, and they're with the team, it's a very difficult force to break.