Nemanja Matic, David Luiz and Company Are Gone, but Benfica Still Dominate

The Portuguese Liga throws up some unlikely heroes, and so it proved again in Sunday’s Lisbon derby. For a while, it looked as if it might be Jefferson Nascimento, whose 87th-minute opener for Sporting against Benfica threatened to blow this season’s competition wide open. Had the Lions held on, they would have closed to within four points of their table-topping neighbours, with Porto in between, just three points shy of the summit.

Yet the champions had something, and someone, special up their sleeves. With a few seconds to go in stoppage time, Benfica centre-back Jardel ploughed in an emphatic equaliser to spark euphoria among encarnados across the country—and there are plenty, with seven out of 10 Portuguese being Benfica fans, as any supporter of the club will be keen to tell you—and keep them four points in front of Porto, with seven remaining the gap to Sporting.

To say Jardel is hardly a natural headliner would be an understatement. The towering Brazilian had never been a regular until this season, when he stepped into the side after Ezequiel Garay’s departure to Zenit Saint Petersburg. There is no suggestion he is even close to being in the same class as his predecessor.

His goal, potentially a title-defining one, recalls that most dramatic of late strikes by another Brazilian, Kelvin, which all but sealed the 2013 title for Porto against Benfica in the season’s penultimate match. The diminutive winger still belongs to the Dragons but has barely had a sniff of first-team action since, and is currently on loan to Palmeiras.

This is the way of things in Portugal. Even the biggest clubs are footballing Wombles, reusing and recycling. It is second nature in an economy that is propped up by selling players. Enzo Perez, who joined Valencia for €25 million last month (the biggest deal of Spain’s characteristically quiet winter window), is an excellent example of both strands of this policy.

Bought as a winger from Estudiantes in 2011, Perez sustained a serious knee injury just months later. He was sent back to his old club on loan in 2012, and few expected to see him in Lisbon again. Yet return he did, filling the void left in Benfica’s central midfield by the sales of Javi Garcia and Axel Witsel together with another unheralded squad player—one Nemanja Matic. By 2014, Perez was a starter for Argentina in the World Cup final.

Perez, and Matic (also sold for €25 million, back to Chelsea), are typical of Benfica’s ability to maximise player value in recent years. In the same window Matic went, in January 2014, the transfer rights of striker Rodrigo and midfielder Andre Gomes were sold to the Meriton Capital investment fund (funded by Singaporean businessman Peter Lim) for €45 million. The pair were moved to Valencia, now owned by Lim, in the summer.

Last summer Lazar Markovic, Garay, goalkeeper Jan Oblak (to Atletico Madrid) and Oscar Cardozo were among the sales. In this window, young midfielder Bernardo Silva (who played a single first-team game for Benfica) was sold to Monaco for €15.75 million, having been on loan there.

In total, the Lisbon giants have generated €160 million through player sales since January 2014 (though it must be underlined that in some cases, such as that of Markovic, third-party ownership meant the club didn’t retain the entire transfer fee).

Francisco Seco/Associated Press

Selling at a premium had been the sole preserve of archrivals Porto, but things have changed under Jorge Jesus. The coach is now the club’s biggest investment, reputed to be earning some €4 million per year and with a €10 million release clause in his current contract (as reported by Record).

You can understand why. Under Jesus, David Luiz, Ramires, Angel Di Maria, Fabio Coentrao and Witsel are just a handful of those to be developed and sold for upwards of €20 million apiece. Current stars including Talisca and Nicolas Gaitan are expected to be next.

In the circumstances, their continued domination of the Liga (they are going for a second successive title, which would be the first time the club has managed back-to-back wins since 1984) is even more impressive. Jesus’ ability to make money and produce success on the pitch is remarkable.

The club hope not to rely solely on transfer profit forever. Their in-house TV channel, BTV, became the first in the world to retain the rights for its club’s own home games in 2013, and broadcasts them all live. BTV is also halfway through a three-year deal as the Portuguese rights holder for the English Premier League. The channel reported a €17 million profit last season (as per Publico), and projections for growth are optimistic.

In years to come, Benfica hope this will allow to hold on to a few more of their stars and make a dent anew in the Champions League, the competition that gave them their reputation as the European Cup in the early 1960s. In the meantime, it’s up to journeymen like Jardel to grab their moment.