Soares says Prestianni's insult to Vini was best thing for Benfica star | OneFootball

Benfica’s investment in young Argentine talent has been a strategy with hugely impactful results over the last few years, ever since Ángel Di María arrived in Portuguese football. In January 2024, the Eagles’ SAD paid €9.5 million for Gianluca Prestianni, who was just 17 years old, in a signing that quickly created high expectations around the young winger. Ana Soares begins by posing a question at the heart of her opinion: “Was insulting Vinícius the best thing that happened to Prestianni?”

“The seriousness of the incident condemned the No. 25 shirt around the world, and many Benfica fans, who do not identify with insulting opponents, whether calling them a ‘monkey’ or a ‘faggot’, will have thought he was not a player for Benfica,” she wrote in her opinion piece for the newspaper 'A Bola'.

Despite the controversy, Prestianni had Benfica’s support and, after UEFA’s investigation, learned that he would have to serve a six-match suspension in international competitions. The consequence also ended up ruling him out of the World Cup and limiting how he could help the Argentine national team. “He was therefore able to focus more on Benfica,” the journalist notes.

Ana Soares also highlights the player’s development under Marco Silva. “The moment he is living through has a lot to do with pre-season; he could not play the first two matches, he worked quietly... It is on the pitch that he has changed the minds of even the most hardened critics, with the ease with which he glides past opponents and makes the fans smile”, it reads.

At the end, the journalist left another question. “From having fingers pointed at him because of a disciplinary case, people now point at him with a ‘look what he did there’. He stopped covering his mouth and saying things in the heat of the moment, and instead took that fire into his feet: that is why he already has 8 goals - how many more has he attempted? - and two assists in 10 matchesWithout that punishment and the need for introspection, would he be in this position now?”, she concluded.

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