Sporting regular snubs captain's armband, takes swipe at Hjulmand | OneFootball

Maxi Araújo was one of the players fans were most eager to see in this pre-season. After a holiday period, the Uruguay international took part in Sporting’s 7-0 thrashing of Strasbourg, scoring one of the goals. At the end of the match, he ruled out the possibility of being Morten Hjulmand’s successor, at least for now.

“Ready to be Sporting’s next captain?” “No, no, no. I don’t think so. Well, whatever the manager chooses will be for the best,” the ‘number 20’ began by telling CMTV microphones after the match. Maxi then praised the Dane.

“Obviously, he was a great player, a great captain and a great person. In truth, I’m very happy to have played with him. But now some very good new signings have arrived as well,” he added. In these two warm-up matches, due to the absences of Gonçalo Inácio and Rui Silva, the captain’s armband belonged to Gonçalo Inácio.

Sporting thus brought their training camp in the Algarve to an end. Now, the green and whites are set to face Monaco next Saturday, 25 July, in the Troféu Cinco Violinos, at the José Alvalade Stadium (7:30pm).

In 2025/26 for Sporting, Maxi Araújo — valued at €35 million — made 47 appearances: 29 in Liga Portugal Betclic, 11 in the UEFA Champions League, five in the Portuguese Cup, one in the League Cup and one in the Super Cup. In the 3,756 minutes he was on the pitch, the winger scored seven goals and provided five assists.

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