S.L. Benfica

Benfica President Luis Filipe Vieira has hinted that he wants Jose Mourinho to take over as manager at his club following the departure of Rui Vitoria.

Vitoria left his position last week following a shock 2-0 defeat to Portimonense which saw Benfica drop seven points behind Primeira Liga leaders Porto.

Reserve coach Bruno Lage was installed as caretaker manager, and Vieira said he has not yet spoken to Mourinho about the job. But he made it clear he would like the former Manchester United boss back at Benfica following his Old Trafford sacking last month, per SIC (h/t Goal's Sacha Pisani):

"For now, Bruno Lage is the coach of Benfica. I am [Mourinho's] friend. Who would not like to have Mourinho? [But] I have not talked to him. If he says yes tomorrow, he'll be here at the drop of a hat. Money is no issue for Benfica."

Mourinho, 55, cut his teeth as a manager at Benfica back in 2000. He stayed only three months in the job, leaving the post after a change in president.

He went on to win back-to-back league titles with rivals Porto, as well as the 2003-04 UEFA Champions League, before establishing himself as arguably the world's best manager at Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid.

His reputation has taken something of a hit recently, though, during his two-and-a-half-year spell at Manchester United.

Mourinho won the UEFA Europa League and League Cup while in charge at Old Trafford, but he never got close to challenging for the Premier League and implemented a tedious brand of football at the club.

As such, there is no guarantee that Europe's biggest clubs will be interested in hiring him anymore.

A return to Real Madrid has been mooted given their current struggles in La Liga.

But Mourinho may welcome the opportunity to go back and manage in his native Portugal, where the spotlight is less intense and he could rebuild his reputation.

It has been over 14 years since he worked in his homeland, and Vieira and Benfica could offer him his chance to return.

Benfica have reportedly offered Joao Felix a new contract that includes a £105 million (€120 million) release clause amid rumours he is wanted by Chelsea.

According to the Mirror's Chris Hatherall, Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri has been keeping a close eye on Felix's progress this season. The No. 10's current contract has a release clause of £45 million (€51.5 million).

Per Hatherall, according to sources in Portugal, Felix is on the verge of signing the new contract with Benfica and could put pen to paper Monday.

The 18-year-old has broken into Benfica's first team this season and produced two goals and an assist in 190 minutes of play.

That game time has come across eight appearances, with Felix spending time on both flanks and in an attacking midfield role.

His first goal will live long in the memory for Benfica fans, per Portuguese football expert Jan Hagen:

The teenager has also been impressive with Portugal's under-21 side:

The goal against Wales was his fourth in eight matches for the Selecao's youth side, and if he continues to impress with Benfica's senior team, it may not be too long until Portugal boss Fernando Santos comes calling.

With the youngster now catching the eye of some of Europe's elite, a new deal will help secure his immediate future at Benfica and put the Portuguese club in a stronger position when they come calling.

What's more, staying put will be more beneficial for his development as it gives him the chance to experience first-team football.

At another club—particularly Chelsea, where young players tend to be given very few opportunities—he'd likely only have the chance to play senior football by being loaned out.

Portuguese authorities have reportedly conducted a raid on Benfica's facilities as part of a corruption probe into several club officials in charge of the reigning Primeira Liga champions.

The Associated Press (h/t Washington Post) reported on Tuesday that the raid had taken place and that Benfica legal adviser Paulo Goncalves was detained under accusations of obstruction of justice.

Benfica president Luis Filipe Vieira was named a formal suspect in the investigation in January, per Reuters, as AP detailed the corruption allegations regard officials being granted illegal access to judicial documents.

Metro's Portuguese football expert, Jan Hagen, provided further context surrounding the allegations of corruption, which in turn are said to relate to matters involving other clubs:

Benfica have won the Primeira Liga crown for the last four seasons in succession and are five points below leaders Porto as they look to make it five in a row this term.

Vieira has maintained his innocence despite the accusations surrounding the club and numerous officials, and Hagen provided quotes from the president in February:

Reuters explained Vieira and Goncalves were two of 12 suspects, with vice president Fernando Tavares and a "high-ranking judge" also among that number.

Music icon Madonna has reportedly moved to Lisbon after her adopted 11-year-old son David Banda joined Benfica's youth academy.

According to Nadia Khomami at the Guardian (h/t Correio da Manha), Banda joined the team in the spring and will remain with the club's academy "until starting at a French high school in Lisbon."

Per the report, Madonna adopted Banda from Malawi in 2006, and he is one of four children the singer has adopted from the African nation.

Madonna has been happy to share images of her son's football progress, as can be seen from her Instagram account:

Banda is now reportedly living at Benfica's youth academy in Seixal, a suburb of Lisbon, while Madonna is living nearby. 

Benfica are the reigning Portuguese champions having claimed the title back in May, the victory making it four consecutive titles, the first time the club have managed the feat in their 113-year history, per Uefa.

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Benfica completed the signing of Barcelona B skipper Alejandro Grimaldo for €1.5 million (£1.1 million), it was confirmed on Tuesday.  

The Blaugrana announced the deal on their website, in which it’s noted the European champions "retain the right to a share of any future sale by the Portuguese club of the player."

Grimaldo, a left-back, has been at Barcelona for seven years. As you would expect from a La Masia graduate, the 20-year-old is technically sound, inventive in possession and an extremely intelligent footballer. He was part of Barca’s pre-season squad in 2014-15, but he has never featured for the senior side.

Here are a few clips that illustrate the kind of quality Grimaldo will bring to the Portuguese outfit:

Bleacher Report’s Sam Tighe thinks it’s a brilliant deal for Benfica and outlined why the defender has decided to leave the club:

The decision to sell the youngster has not been greeted with glee by the Barcelona fans, especially given there’s no mention of a buyback clause in the player’s Benfica deal.

Grimaldo has shown that not only is he a talented footballer during his time with the B team, but he’s an excellent leader, too. For Barcelona to lose a local player who is clearly an inspiration is rather peculiar, especially for a club that prides itself on blooding academy talents with strong characters in the first team.

Spanish football expert Sergi Dominguez feels as though the board have made a huge error letting the youngster leave the club:

It’s been common for La Masia talents to move on lately. Gerard Deulofeu and Adama Traore were also sold on last summer, even though both players were expected to be integrated into the first team further down the line. Grimaldo clearly couldn’t see a pathway to the senior side either and, with his contract running down, is evidently happy to take his chances elsewhere.

Barcelona look as though they’ll be privy to a substantial portion of any fee should Benfica sell the player in the coming years and, with Jordi Alba in situ, are not completely short of options at left-back. However, along with the sale of other bright academy talents, this transfer seems to have left a bitter taste in the mouths of many Blaugrana fans.

If any competition signals the beginning of a new season, the International Champions Cup (ICC) has surely taken that particular mantle.

Hailing from the World Football Challenge (2009-2012), the ICC has seen the past two pre-seasons witness true European giants take their campaigns' first steps on North American soil. Real Madrid were the inaugural winners of the cup in 2013, followed by Manchester United last summer.

This year, the tournament has expanded further; more heavyweights are planning to indulge spectators in four continents and seven countries over 25 days.

The International Champions Cup starts this weekend: Our fixture list to bookmark http://t.co/1C7yB74arZ https://t.co/KAk3eeEGpN

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) July 11, 2015

In possibly the upset of ICC play thus far, New York Red Bulls shocked Jose Mourinho's Chelsea 4-2 on July 21 in Harrison, New Jersey—and for an encore performance, NYRB have been handed Benfica.

The defending Portuguese champions played a 0-0 draw with Italian side Fiorentina and are looking to secure their first positive result in the International Champions Cup in 2015.

New York Red Bulls' manager Jesse Marsch will not have a quick turnaround to cope with as he did vs. Chelsea, which means he has a selection crisis. Does he play the team that shown vs. the English champions, or does he allow his first-team regulars to enter the ICC from the opening whistle?

Date: Sunday, July 26 (USA) / Monday, July 27 (UK)

Time: 7:30 p.m. EST / 12:30 a.m. BST

Venue: Red Bull Arena, Harrison, New Jersey

TV Info: Fox Sports 2 / ESPN Deportes / Sky Sports 1 (tape delay)

Live Stream: Fox Sports Go / Sky Go (tape delay)

Form Line 

Starting XIs 

STARTING XI vs @SL_Benfica: Robles, Lade, Wallace, McCarty, Zizzo, Sanchez, Stolz, Ouimette, Perrinelle, Adams, Wright-Phillips #ICC2015

— New York Red Bulls (@NewYorkRedBulls) July 26, 2015

XI: Ederson, N. Semedo, @lichilopez2, @luisao4oficial, Sílvio, Samaris, Pizzi, @OLAJOHNO, @carcela_mehdi, Taarabt, Jonathan. #ICC2015

— Sport Lisboa Benfica (@SL_Benfica) July 26, 2015

Player to Watch: Bradley Wright-Phillips

Not a participant vs. Chelsea, after playing a marathon 120-minute match vs. Philadelphia Union, striker Bradley Wright-Phillips will probably see his first ICC minutes vs. Benfica. The 2014 Major League Soccer Golden Boot winner scored 31 goals in 37 appearances for NYRB's last season and has eight goals in 21 appearance this year.

As New York's danger man, a successful Wright-Phillips outing normally translates to good news for Marsch's squad.

Now 30 years old, the Lewisham-born striker has found a home with the Red Bulls, and the International Champions Cup is the perfect place to showcase his talents to a worldwide audience. Benfica should, and will, be on high alert.

Key Battle: Benfica's Defence vs. Bradley Wright-Phillips

Benfica losing to Fiorentina was made easier by losing central defender Luisao after two yellow cards. Seeing one's captain walk off the pitch after 66 minutes is sure to put a damper on any momentum and forward impetus.

He's back to full strength vs. New York Red Bulls, and putting the clamps on Wright-Phillips is priority No. 1 for the Portuguese side. Without stopping the MLS' foremost goalscorer, securing a victory becomes infinitely more difficult.

A winning performance for Benfica comments on the back. Muting any and all of NYRB's forward progress, specifically from Wright-Phillips, should be enough to secure their first win in America this summer.

Follow @danieltiluk

*Stats via WhoScored.com; transfer fees via Soccerbase where not noted.

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).

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.

Manchester United took the next step in revamping their squad on Friday, completing a transfer that will see out-of-favour winger Bebe move to Portuguese side Benfica. The news was confirmed by Benfica's official Twitter account:

According to Manchester United's Twitter account, Benfica will pay €3 million for the player's services, while the Reds have the right to 50 percent of any sell-on fee.

Reports indicate Bebe signed a four-year deal with the Portuguese champions, although this was yet to be confirmed by the club at the time of writing.

The 24-year-old winger joined the Red Devils in 2010 in bizarre fashion, when then-manager Sir Alex Ferguson told reporters he bought the youngster without ever watching him play, per the Daily Mail's David Kent.

Bebe had sensational physical tools, and United's scouts in Portugal convinced Ferguson he had to act fast. Four years later, The Guardian's Marcus Christenson looked back on the player's career at Old Trafford:

Christenson left out the winger's finest moment in a Manchester United shirt, however, as Bebe also scored in the team's Champions League win over Bursaspor in 2010.

As shared by Man Utd News, Bebe spoke highly about his new club, taking a not-so-subtle jab at his former team:

The Daily Telegraph's Mark Ogden liked the deal, with Bebe's future at Old Trafford all but over:

Unable to make his mark at the club, the winger spent the last few seasons out on loan in Turkey and his native Portugal, and he made enough of an impression during the 2013-14 season for the Portuguese champions to take a chance on him.

Bebe may have been a massive flop for the Mancunians, but he will leave the fans with the memory of his match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, described by some on social media as "the worst performance ever on a football pitch":

In all seriousness, the Portuguese forward worked hard during his time in England and did enough to deserve his move to Benfica, a place where he could still resurrect his career.

Fans may enjoy making fun of his career (or lack thereof) with the Red Devils, but Bebe will now have a chance to prove he can be an effective player for a club that made it to the final of the Europa League just last season.

Follow @ReverschPass