Benfica statement slams Pedro Sousa over António Silva | OneFootball

Benfica issued a statement in defense of António Silva, who was accused earlier this week by commentator Pedro Sousa of having leaked the Portugal national team’s starting XI before Georgia vs Portugal, a Euro 2024 match in which the Benfica player started.

The Lisbon club believes that in recent days a “campaign” has been orchestrated to target the 22-year-old player and questions why the matter was made public before the announcement of the squad for the 2026 World Cup, from which the defender was left out.

Benfica also questions whether it was a “coincidence” that the defender was not included in the squad: “António Silva is an outstanding human being and an excellent professional, as well as one of Benfica’s main assets, one of our team captains and, proudly, a ‘son’ of this club, which is why the repeated attacks he has been subjected to are completely unacceptable,” the Lisbon club’s statement concludes.

After the announcement, Roberto Martínez confirmed the information: “It is a very serious situation. We investigated it and it was an accident, not a case of indiscipline. It was an accident that happened and António learned from it” (Read his words HERE).

“Sport Lisboa e Benfica cannot fail to condemn the campaign that, in recent days, has sought to target our player António Silva over an alleged incident at Euro 2024, two years ago. More than confirming or denying it, what matters is noting the way in which, strangely (or was it strategically?), the issue was brought up on the eve of the announcement of the squad for the 2026 World Cup, in which António Silva’s name would not appear, surely by coincidence. António Silva is an outstanding human being and an excellent professional, as well as one of Benfica’s main assets, one of our team captains and, proudly, a ‘son’ of this club, which is why the repeated attacks he has been subjected to are completely unacceptable.”

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