Rui Costa eyes Xavi and Iraola for Benfica job | OneFootball

Sporting director Rui Costa is weighing options for the Portuguese club’s bench. Andoni Iraola, Thiago Motta, and Xavi Hernández are on the Lisbon institution’s priority shortlist, while Marco Silva has formally offered himself for the job.

With José Mourinho’s departure to Real Madrid virtually sealed for the end of the season, the sporting department led by Rui Costa is already working on possible replacements. According to the newspaper Record, three names are on the Portuguese club’s radar: Andoni Iraola, who will end his spell at Bournemouth at the close of the campaign, and Xavi Hernández and Thiago Motta, two top-level coaches who are currently without a club and available.

Iraola is the candidate with the greatest momentum right now. The 43-year-old Spanish coach will leave Bournemouth despite having had a good Premier League season and having recently been linked with destinations such as Bayer Leverkusen. His profile as a modern manager and his performances in England make him an attractive option for the Portuguese project.

Xavi and Motta offer one operational advantage: they are immediately available. The former Barcelona coach left the club in 2024 after three seasons in which he won a league title, and since then he has been waiting for his next opportunity. Motta, meanwhile, had an early exit from Juventus after a strong previous spell at Bologna. Both have experience in demanding projects and know high-level European football well.

In addition to the three candidates who appear as priorities on the Eagles’ agenda, there is one coach who has already made the first move. Marco Silva, Fulham’s manager whose contract expires in June, has reportedly offered himself to the Lisbon club, according to the newspaper A Bola. The Portuguese coach, who knows English football well and has experience at several European clubs, did not wait to be called and sounded out the possibility of returning to his country.

Mourinho was the architect of the team’s qualification for next season’s Champions League, and his departure leaves a difficult void to fill. Rui Costa has several options on the table, and the coming weeks will be key in deciding the future of the bench at Da Luz.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.