Surprise! José Melro leaves Benfica and joins the Liga Portugal leaders | OneFootball

José Melro is no longer a Benfica player. As determined, the young winger of the "encarnados" left the Clube da Luz on the last day of the transfer market and will be joining Marítimo, one of the clubs best positioned to achieve promotion to the Liga Portugal Betclic for the 2026/27 season.

The confirmation came from both clubs, with the Madeira team revealing that the 21-year-old footballer signed a contract valid for one and a half years. According to the newspaper Record, José Melro immediately traveled to the archipelago, having been present at Barreiros last Monday, February 2nd.

After three years competing in Benfica's youth ranks, José Melro thus moves to the current leader of the Liga Portugal Meu Super, gaining more space and visibility with the Funchal team, which aims to return to the big stages of Portuguese football already next season.

"Sport Lisboa e Benfica wishes José Melro the best of luck in this new chapter of his career", wrote the "encarnados" club in the official note where they revealed that the winger, who has been playing in Nélson Veríssimo's team, would transfer permanently to Marítimo.

This season, wearing the Benfica jersey, José Melro — valued at 600 thousand euros — played a total of nine official matches for the secondary team: seven in the Liga Portugal Meu Super and two in the Premier League International Cup. In the 451 minutes he was on the field, the now number 9 of Marítimo scored one goal.

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