Benfica are unhappy with Roberto Martínez over António Silva | OneFootball

Benfica’s officials will have been even more displeased with Roberto Martínez’s recent statements ahead of Portugal’s match against the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the World Cup. At issue were the national team coach’s words when asked about the possibility of having called up one more centre-back, given Rúben Dias’s physical limitations.

“We have players who can play in the centre-back positions. The versatility of our group is greater than trying to bring in a new player who has no experience at national-team level and who has no clear understanding of what we are working on,” the coach said.

According to Correio da Manhã, for the Eagles’ hierarchy, those remarks ended up being seen as a slight toward António Silva, Benfica’s defender, who already has 20 caps and was a regular presence in all six matches of the World Cup qualifying phase. Even so, the centre-back played only three minutes in a match held in September, which reinforces the context of reduced trust from the national team’s coaching staff.

Benfica believes that, by stressing the need to turn to alternative solutions, Roberto Martínez ended up giving the impression of a lack of confidence in players already integrated into the working group, namely António Silva. The situation comes at a time when the relationship between the club and the national team coach was already being closely monitored by Benfica’s hierarchy.

This is not the first time points of friction have emerged between Benfica and Roberto Martínez. The club had reportedly already been displeased by António Silva’s absence from the final World Cup squad, as well as by the coach’s previous comments about the player’s disciplinary incidents. Also at issue was the situation that occurred during the Nations League final four in June 2025, when António Silva revealed a national team starting XI, an episode later commented on by the Spanish coach.

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