"Roger Schmidt is always complimentary about our Youth Development"

STATEMENTS

After a period in which 27 players from Benfica's youth teams were on international duty, national competitions resume this weekend, November 25 and 26. Pedro Mil-Homens, general manager of Benfica Campus, took stock of this competitive moment and highlighted the good coordination with the first-team coach, Roger Schmidt.

"The competitions are back, and next week we'll be playing Inter Milan in the Youth League, a competition Benfica is paying close attention to. We're fighting to qualify for the next stage, which is our goal", said Pedro Mil-Homens, pleased with the initiative held at Benfica Campus and Estádio da Luz, which brought dozens of ECA members to the club's facilities.

"We had a visit from the ECA this week with around 50 clubs. We received the highest praise from those who were with us. The Benfica Campus was also featured internationally in interviews and reports by foreign press organizations, particularly in the words of our coach Roger Schmidt, who was always, as he is, complimentary about our youth development", said the manager.

"We like to see our main client, as I like to say, who is the first-team coach, looking at the youth team's work the way he does, and praising us publicly. What surprised me, and us, was to see some news that didn't correspond to reality, that didn't correspond to our assessment, and, above all, to our working relationship with coach Roger Schmidt, in the link between Youth Football and Professional Football, articulated by our President and the General Director for Football. What we have to do is look forward, keep working, and ensure that the main objective and mission of this football academy is to produce players every year who can make it into the first team and establish themselves, as has happened in recent years," said Pedro Mil-Homens.