[RedEagle]

Marchena a 21 year old Spaniard with much promise has been signed by Benfica to a 4 year contract. He plays central defense. Along with Dudic and Basto it looks like Heynckes is betting on a strong, talented and young defense for next season. His next option will be to get a strong forward to pair up with Nuno...Stay tuned. It seems that 4-4-2 will be played with Sabry and Poborsky creating havoc on the wings and setting up the forwards. Center mid also needs a playmaker....stay tuned!

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Viva o Benfica!

 

[NelsonD]

a four year deal? Ah man, JVA will probably release him after two!! (sorry guys I am still bitter)

Viva o Benfica e Joao Pinto!

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Author formerly known as Sniper!

 

[SLB]

cool another foreigner any more want to join the boat.

 

[RedEagle]

Well I would take a martian if he could play over Paulo "Wooden Legs" Madeira any time...

What is all this nationalism about anyhow?

Aren't most of you guys of Portuguese ancestry living in foreign lands??

I just don't get it???

 

[NelsonD]

What does living in a foreign land have to do with anything? Yeah I live in Canada, and feel extremely lucky, however, football clubs are a representation of their nation. It is a means of developing "home grown talent." If Portuguese players aren't getting the opportunity in Portugal, what makes you think they will elsewhere. Case in point, Hugo leal and Simao...who both play left bench in Spain.

Where does globalization and amalgamation end??? hahaha

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Author formerly known as Sniper!

 

[SLB]

Paulo madeira may have had a bad season but even if he is crap id prefer having him than a team bunch of foreigners benfica are portuguese (well apparently) and so foreigners shouldnt make up the majority of players.
To implying paulo maderia is crap yes he has had a bad season but only after the 7-0 defeat before that he was good and before that we seem to forget he was a portugal international and playing instead of players like beto and costa and we also seem to forget the trouble we wentt to so we could get him.
P.S Redeagle I dont see what living in a foreign land has to do with anything.

 

[Dae]

The second, third and fourth divisions are for "developing talent". The first division is for winning championships. It's naive to believe that any one nation can produce enough talent to supply every team with top quality players. Foreigners fill in the blanks. If there are many foreigners then a good question to ask is why are there so many blanks?

 

[RedEagle]

I just don't get you guys. Benfica represents Portugal in name only...THe SELECT Team represents Portugal with the players and the name. This is professional sports. I mean what you guys are saying to put it in an example is if I were a great hockey player I couldn't play in Toronto because I am not Canadian????
If that were the case the Dallas Stars shouldn't even have a hockey team because they don't have ice in Dallas. Or even worse that's like saying that I couldn't work for an American, Canadian or English company because I am a portuguese foreigner?????

Players like Valdo, Schwarz, Aldair, Mozer, and so on took Benfica to great heights in the late 80's and early 90's. I am interested in top quality football and championships...If Benfica delivers that with 11 foreigners or 11 Portuguese I don't care. I would prefer to see Portuguese talent, but if it's not available for whatever reason, I still want a top quality product to cheer my BEnfica.

BENFICA is what's important, certainly not the players, their job is to deliver for what they're getting paid to. Something JVP did not do in the last two years!

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Viva o Benfica!

 

[SLB]

Redeagle lets not compare any other sport to football because they are totally different.
As for the great foreign players we had they were great in a great era but what we have to remember is that they played in a team which the core was portuguese.
As for benfica only represents portugal in name i think that alone is a good enough reason for most of the team to be portuguese but also who are the people who put most money in to the club, yes the socios and the fans but especially the socios and i would estimate that about 95% of these are portuguese so another reason to represent portugal.
I dont mind foreigners including the mian part of the team is portuguese, another point is that their is always portuguese talent available as our youngsters keep on showing.
P.S redeagle just like to ask u a question, do u support other portuguese clubs in europe?

 

[RedEagle]

Why shouldn't we compare other PROFESSIONAL sports to football? They all work based on the same premise: Locality

Fans usually support their teams because they are the local team, or they developed an affinity for their style of play, or even because of the history. Whatever the reasons a professional team thrives on its product. If Benfica cannot deliver on the product they lose money...Benfica is not in the business of losing money, although they have managed to do so in a distinguished way. But that's a different topic.

Point is management feels that they don't have the "homegrown" talent to compete, so they look elsewhere. I have no problem with that as long as they deliver, if they don't than it's up to the socios or future stockholders to make management accountable...and it's a simple cycle of economics.

As to your question, yes, I support all "portuguese" teams in Europe because they represent Portugal as I said earlier, in name only. I am guilty of the premise of locality...not nationalism!

 

[SLB]

Redeagle what so u support portuguese team in europe but yet u believe that a team of 11 foreigners is o.k, don't u think that is contradictory.
As for u can compare football with any other proffesional sport in my opinion u cant because, football in my opinion is the best sport in the world and so doesn't deserve to be compared to any other sport also football is the most popular sport worldwide so it cant be comparded to any other.
If a team is represented in name only frankly there is not much point them being from the country they are from because the players are the most important aspect of the team.

 

[Game Rod]

The problem is getting foreigners without using all the quality young players from here.

On the other hand, look at what happened with Barcelona in the Copa del Rei. Imagine Benfica with top 11 international players. What would happen when they had their national's teams playing?

Besides, Vale e Azevedo himself promised that Benfica's team would be the main players' provider of the national team.
Now he says the national team is too old...