Centre-back says goodbye to Benfica: I'm not leaving as I imagined | OneFootball

After 13 years wearing the eagle on his chest, Mauro Furtado is officially leaving Benfica. The 18-year-old centre-back will continue his career at Girona, after becoming an Under-17 world champion with Portugal, and took to social media to share an emotional farewell message to the club where he grew up.

The player joined Benfica as a child, when he was just four or five years old, and spent virtually his entire youth development at the club from Luz. Now, as he begins a new chapter, the young defender did not hide his emotion as he looked back on his long journey wearing the eagle on his chest.

“I arrived at Benfica when I was 4/5 years old, still a child, with a dream I probably couldn’t even explain. I joined this club without knowing what life had in store for me and, since then, I have grown here. I grew as a player, but above all as a person,” he wrote.

For the young centre-back, Benfica was much more than a club: “Benfica was the only club I ever knew. It was the only shirt I wore, the only home I had in football, the place where I lived my first dreams, my first achievements, my first defeats, my friendships and so many moments that will stay with me forever,” he added.

Mauro Furtado did acknowledge, however, that his departure is not happening exactly the way he had imagined: “I am certainly not leaving in the way I once imagined leaving the only club I have had in my life, but I take with me gratitude for everything Benfica gave me and taught me over so many years. There are things we cannot control, no matter how much we want to, and this is one of them,” he said.

“Each person left something in me. Some taught me football, others taught me how to grow, and others were simply there at the right moments. I carry a little of everyone with me,” he concluded. Now, Mauro Furtado is preparing to begin a new adventure at Girona.

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