A coach who spent 4 years at Benfica scuppered Ibrahima Ba deal | OneFootball

Benfica suffered a major setback in the transfer market after seeing Ibrahima Ba choose a different destination, despite being the top target to strengthen Marco Silva’s central defense. The Eagles’ hierarchy worked on the deal, but several factors ultimately kept the Senegal international away from the Luz.

The main reason behind the defender’s choice was Strasbourg, where he will once again work with Hugo Oliveira, who was Benfica’s goalkeeping coach between 2012 and 2016. It was the coach who originally brought the player into the Minho side’s first team. The player believes that by staying alongside the Portuguese coach, he will continue to develop and have better chances of making the step up to another level.

Another decisive factor was the link between Strasbourg and Chelsea. Since the French club became part of the group led by Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly, it has become a true development platform for players bound for English football. Cases such as Andrey Santos and Diego Moreira strengthened Ibrahima’s belief that the road to the Premier League could be shorter by following that strategy.

Not even direct contact from Marco Silva, who greatly appreciates the center-back’s qualities and considered him the first-choice option to strengthen Benfica’s defensive core, was enough to change the decision. The Senegalese player felt that at the Luz he could start behind Tomás Araújo and Clément Lenglet in the pecking order, especially if António Silva were to remain in the squad for a while longer.

Given this scenario, Benfica are forced to rethink their plans for the defense. After also seeing Kévin Boma slip away to Salzburg, the Eagles’ board are now stepping up contacts for a more experienced new center-back, as Joshua Wynder, Gabriel Índio and Rui Silva are still seen only as options for the future.

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