Tiago Pinto, sporting director of Roma, attended the Thinking Football Summit this Saturday and, on the sidelines of the event, spoke about the market, Benfica but mainly about his current club. Without hiding his Benfica trait, the director highlighted that the player from the Portuguese league continues to be highly rated abroad.
“Even now that I see things from the outside in, it’s always, let’s say, inclined, because I never hid that I’m a big Benfica fan and that’s why my vision is always red. From the football point of view, I think that more once in the past market it was demonstrated that Portuguese players, or players who play in Portugal, are still in fashion, because many players leave and go to big clubs and assert themselves, as happened with Darwin or Vitinha and Fábio Vieira himself and out there. Portuguese football continues to be one of the main showcases of European football and this is also the responsibility of the clubs, the Federation and the League”, said Tiago Pinto.
What comment does Benfica’s current campaign deserve?
“As long as Benfica wins for me everything is fine”.
Domingos Soares de Oliveira said here yesterday that Benfica’s strategy could involve buying a foreign club. What do you think about this?
“I worked for Benfica for nine years, I was a professional, I left Benfica as a professional, but Benfica will never leave me, but today I’m just a fan and I want Benfica to win and nothing else.”
What main difficulties did you encounter in imposing your ideas in Rome?
“When the club was bought it was within a difficult reality, as we were within a group of teams under the UEFA Financial Fair Play rules. several departments. We had to carry out a complete overhaul of the squad in which we had to reduce the salary mass a lot and at the same time improve the quality of the team. nothing about it.”
Is it true that Cristiano Ronaldo was a chance for Roma?
“One of the things that annoys me a little bit in Italy is that they are always talking about the market. It’s every day talking, here in Portugal we are better because we only talk when the market opens, but the truth is that this was never a possibility It never had any basis, but in Italy they talk every day about three different players, it’s normal because we are Portuguese and he’s Portuguese, but that, I repeat, never had any basis.”
FC Porto and Sp. Braga will face Italian teams in UEFA. What advice can you give the Portuguese teams?
“To FC Porto and Sérgio Conceição I cannot give any advice because if my memory serves me correctly, Sérgio Conceição always eliminated the Italian teams, that’s why he has to give me advice. Sp. Braga will play with Fiorentina, that it’s really a strong team, which is having more difficulties this year because they always play on Thursdays in Europe and on Sundays in the league. It’s not easy to play every three days and in a league as competitive as the Italian one is . In that respect it is a little different than in Portugal because there is more risk of losing points with the teams at the bottom of the table. In Italy, you feel this impact of playing in Europe more and it is truly difficult. Fiorentina have passed those difficulties, but I think that in both cases, either Sp. Braga or FC Porto, they will have their chances of passing the tie.”
What expectations do you have for the World Cup?
“We on the side of the clubs are always with our hearts in our hands, hoping that the players do not get injured, that there is no problem and the players return well and quickly. As a Portuguese I want things to go well, but I must also say that if Portugal If you can’t win, let Argentina win because Messi and Dybala by the way, but above all Messi deserved to end his career with a world title. This is if Portugal can’t win, obviously.”
