Pizzi shone at Benfica, but came close to signing for Sporting | OneFootball

Pizzi, currently at Estoril, spoke about his time at Benfica, recalling the importance of the experience he had at the club and how his career could have taken a different path had he accepted Sporting’s offer before moving to Luz.

"I had an offer from Sporting, the coach was Leonardo Jardim and I spoke to him directly. He wanted me to go there and said I would be an important player. At that moment, William Carvalho was emerging in pre-season. I told him I had many offers after my good season at Deportivo in Spain. Things did not move forward and a few days later Benfica came up", he said on the '90+3' podcast.

Before settling in Lisbon, Pizzi - who recently played at Luz - was loaned to Espanyol, an experience he valued greatly: "They wanted me to play one more full year for a team rather than go to Benfica and not be much of an option. I was lucky enough to only be in big cities: Madrid, A Coruña, Barcelona... It was a good season for me. I had the chance to play with a great player, Simão Sabrosa, who was like a father to me".

At Benfica, he worked with Jorge Jesus and made a point of praising the coach: "He helped me enormously throughout my career. He changed my position. I remember arriving at Benfica a bit unsure of what was going to happen. I had very good first training sessions and I remember Jorge Jesus saying to an assistant: 'This kid has a lot of passing quality'. He took me aside and told me I was going to stay, but that he was going to change my position. He helped me a lot and spoke to me every day."

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