Pizzi on Benfica sacking a champion and explains his return: my goal | OneFootball

Pizzi recalled his time at Benfica and assured that he has great appreciation for Bruno Lage, the coach under whom he had the best seasons of his career.

Pizzi believes that Bruno Lage’s dismissal from Benfica was natural – just like Ferro –, since the team was going through a bad run of results. The 36-year-old midfielder, who was very important during the coach’s first spell at Luz, also explained that he had always planned to return to Portugal.

“Football lives on results and, when the team doesn’t win, the first to suffer is always the coach, that’s just how it is. I like mister Bruno Lage a lot, he was a coach who helped me a lot in many moments, it was with him that I had the best seasons of my life. When you don’t win, people choose to make changes and, as coaches, they have to be used to it,” he told TSF.

Currently at Estoril, Pizzi spoke about his return to Portugal after a season (2024/25) with APOEL, in Cyprus: “My goal from the start was to return to Portugal, also to be more at ease and have my loved ones close by.”

“And when the opportunity at Estoril came up, I didn’t think twice, because it’s a club that, as everyone knows, is growing, a club with very good people working, that wants to grow, wants to evolve as a team, as a club,” said the former Benfica player.

To conclude, Pizzi also explained how long he intends to continue his career: “As long as my body can handle it! I still have a great passion for training, for the game, for coming to work every day, for being competitive every day. I can’t set a limit for when to end my career, I want to enjoy my day-to-day and help Estoril win even more points. I want to stay connected to football, in whatever area it may be, I want to remain connected to football, but we’ll see about that later. What matters now is football and being on the pitch.”

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