Sofia Oliveira appalled by Roberto Martínez’s comments on António Silva | OneFootball

Sofia Oliveira reacted forcefully to the controversy surrounding António Silva, after fresh comments from Roberto Martínez about an episode involving the Benfica centre-back in the National Team. The pundit strongly criticised the national coach and the way the issue was handled.

"What a refined and dirty campaign against a kid who has already been called up 18 times (!) after this episode. They bring the issue into the public square before the squad announcement and now the coach himself comes out and confirms it. Surreal. Roberto Martínez being strong with the weak. What a leader," she wrote on social media.

At issue are comments made by Martínez to newspaper Record, in which the coach confirmed that the defender allegedly revealed Portugal's starting XI without authorisation during Euro 2024, in a match against Georgia. "It was an accident, it is not a disciplinary matter. It is a very serious situation when information gets out," said the coach, although he ruled out any disciplinary punishment for the player.

The 52-year-old coach said that this case had no impact on the selections for the World Cup, from which António Silva was left out. "That already happened at Euro 2024, that is not part of the current selections. We are already two years on and António has learned from it", he said.

at a time when the Benfica centre-back was not included in the most recent National Team call-up, unlike Tomás Araújo.

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