Fábio Faria bemoans Benfica star's lack of new deal: It's dragging on | OneFootball

António Silva’s name has been in the spotlight in recent days for different reasons. Benfica’s centre-back was left out of Roberto Martínez’s squad for the 2026 World Cup and also saw the national team coach drag him into a controversy related to the disclosure of Portugal’s starting XI at Euro 2024 against Georgia. On top of these episodes, there is also the contractual issue.

The Portuguese international still has not renewed with Benfica, even though his current deal only expires at the end of next season. At the same time, the player is being mentioned as one of the possible successors to Nicolás Otamendi in the leadership of the Eagles’ squad.

Fábio Faria, a former Eagles player, acknowledged in an interview with Desporto ao Minuto that António Silva’s last season fell short of expectations, although he stressed the young defender’s potential to take on a role of greater responsibility at the Club.

“The renewal is a case that seems to me to be taking a long time. António’s season was not the best this year either. When Roger Schmidt brought him in, he had an incredible season and everyone was talking about being interested in him. But last season things did not go so well. When Tomás played, things improved. When Tomás started gaining rhythm, you could feel that the Otamendi-Tomás partnership gave more confidence, and that is without taking anything away from António, who is an excellent player. This season not having gone so well for António may be complicating the negotiations. I’m not on the inside. But obviously he is a Benfica asset and it would be good if they could renew with him. He is still very young, he still has a lot of room to make mistakes and to improve. It would make perfect sense for Benfica to renew with him,” he said.

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