“I'm Benfiquista, I love Benfica!”

BPLAY INTERVIEW

Passionate about what football has given him and gives him, sustained by a self-confessed love for Benfica, Rafa felt it was time to leave. He says it bluntly and with the openness that characterizes him. The emotions of eight years with an eagle on his chest overflow in an open-hearted interview with BPlay . 

Rafa played 326 games for Benfica, divided between the Championship (206), the Champions League (48), the Europa League (21), the Portuguese Cup (29), the League Cup (19) and the Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup (3). During his spell, he scored 94 goals for Benfica: 64 in the league, 13 in the Champions League, 4 in the Europa League, 10 in the Portuguese Cup, 2 in the League Cup and 1 in the Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup.

He won 7 titles for Benfica: 3 Championships, 1 Portuguese Cup and 3 Cândido de Oliveira Super Cups.

Signed in 2016, the forward made his debut against Arouca on September 9, and on May 12, 2024, he officially said goodbye to Glorioso precisely against the same opponent, at the Cathedral, scoring two goals in the 5-0 triumph. His first goal came at the Estádio da Luz in a 4-0 win over Tondela on January 22, 2017.

LAST DAY. WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND?

"It's hard... It's hard when you have to leave something that's been your home for so long, isn't it? Eight years. People think it's easy for us to have to leave, to have to give up, that this is just a job... MBut we spend so much time here, and so much time with these people, so much time on this pitch, that it becomes a part of our lives. It's always difficult, but I leave happy because I know I've done my job and I know that the people I'm leaving behind are friends who I consider very much in my life."

YOU DIDN'T WANT A TRIBUTE. WHY?

"No player plays for honors. He plays to stand out. I don't think I've ever wanted cameras, I've never wanted prizes, I've never wanted anything like that. I had no interest in that, I'll never have any interest in that. My interest has always been for people to like me as a man, for my character, for who I am, not for Rafa as a player. Some like me, others don't, that's part of life, but... tributes aren't for me. I don't want any of that." 

START AND FINISH THE JOURNEY AGAINST AROUCA...

"I said this in a group of us that everything was falling into place. The debut was against Arouca, in Arouca, and that the farewell was against Arouca, now at our place... I think it was a perfect thing."

WAS IT HARD TO HOLD BACK THE EMOTION WHEN YOU WERE HUGGED BY EVERYONE?

"It's always difficult because, as I said earlier, I'm leaving something that is basically almost my entire career, eight years. People don't have much idea of what eight years at a club is like, and I think that's what I felt at that moment: OOK, this is happening, it's my time, I decided to make it so. It shows that I have a big family, apart from the family I have at home, and I've always said that. The most important thing for me will always be the connections I make and not what I do as a player, because that doesn't interest me very much."

THE TEAMMATES SAID THEY WANTED TO WIN THIS GAME FOR RAFA...

"It was the bald man [João Mário], the bald man said that phrase and I liked hearing it, because he's a person I admire a lot, he's a person I have a lot of respect for, he's a person, a friend that I'm going to take with me for life, just like many people I've left behind and who have already left Benfica. Hearing them say that is good because, after all, it's not Rafa the player. They got to know Rafa as a person, and that's the most important thing for me."

RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR TEAMMATES

"If you look at it, I think I have more friends in football than I do outside football. That says a lot about what football is, what the dressing room is, what our life is like inside. We spend so much time here that a lot of people really do become your family, people from home, people from...  You leave here and you want to go to dinner with these people, you want to go to lunch with these people, in other words, your life ends up being these people. For me, that shows a lot about football and a lot about what I bring to my life. Football has given me many friendships, and friendships for life."

LUCRATIVE OFFERS TO LEAVE IN THE LAST TWO YEARS TURNED DOWN. WHY?

"I always chose to stay here, not because I was forced to, not because anyone wanted me to. It was always my decision, whether I had more money, less money, it was always my decision to stay here because my family was here, I was here, I felt happy here. And I think that's the most important thing, that I feel good in a place. And if I feel good in a place, I'm going to stay, because for me that's always going to be the most important thing, it doesn't matter much 'Oh, you'll earn more here, you'll earn more here...'. That's not what I ever wanted in my life."

THE COACHES

"Rui Vitória was my arrival here. I don't think we connected very well. It's true, there's no getting away from it. I have nothing bad to say. The most I can say is: I don't think we connect with everyone in life. I didn't understand him well, and maybe he didn't understand me well, but he did a very good job at Benfica, and he was the coach who brought me here. Gaffer Bruno [Lage] was a person who, when everything was a bit dark, brought us a bit of life. And when I say 'a little', I don't mean a little, because he really was a very important person at Benfica. He wasn't properly appreciated, so to speak. He should have been much more appreciated, and for me, he was a very important coach. I learned a lot from him, and he brought a lot of good life here to Benfica and to our dressing room. Coach Nélson Veríssimo ended up staying with us when the master Bruno left. It's not easy. The two times he was with us, it's not easy, because it wasn't programmed by him, it wasn't a season programmed by him, it was finishing seasons, and that's never easy. We know that. And he was always very honest with me, with whom I still have a relationship and whom I like very much.  Jorge [Jesus] is one of the people I like the most. He may not know this, but he's one of the people I like the most, because I like him a lot. I think honesty is a very important thing in our lives, and he's a very straightforward person. As he's a person who has no filters, he ends up being a person I identify with a lot, because I like that a lot. I think everything that needs to come out, comes out, and that's something that I, as a person... I like it a lot and I've learned a lot from him. He was a coach from whom I really learned a lot, who taught us a lot and I wish he'd left here [at a time] when we'd actually won a title. Coach Roger [Schmidt] ends up being the easiest to talk to because he's our coach. I hope he stays here for many years. I hope people appreciate him as a coach, because they don't realize what a person he is here. He was also one of the strong reasons why I stayed at Benfica, at a time when things were very...  For me, in my head, they weren't making as much sense as they were. And then it was coach Roger who... We had a chat when I arrived here, after our vacation. And it was also one of the reasons I stayed here. I'm very grateful for what he did for me, for realizing the person I was, for knowing how to deal with me and manage what I am, because I think a coach is also very important when he knows how to deal with people. Coach Roger has been very important here in my career at Benfica over the last two years, and he's managed to bring us titles again after three years."

PRESIDENT RUI COSTA

"Rui, it's difficult for me to say President Rui, because Rui is a friend to me. He was one of the people who brought me here at the time. And that's what he is. He's very welcoming, he was a player, he knows how we feel, he knows what we've been through, he was a great player.And then there's the friendship I ended up forming with him, it was a very important friendship for me. He's a friend and will always be a friend. Because of everything we've created here, because of all these years, it's a lot of years together, a lot of years of relationship. And that's what I like about football. It doesn't really matter what we are, it matters how we treat each other."

THREE CHAMPIONSHIPS, THREE SUPER CUPS AND ONE PORTUGAL CUP. WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THE TROPHIES WON?

"They weren't easy. I would have liked more, of course. I feel that many times we could have had a different outcome, but that's football. For me, football and life are like that. Not everything goes the way we want, we're not always going to win, and knowing how to be, knowing how to lose, is also something I've had to learn, and know how to deal with, because it's not easy. People think that we've left here and everything is fine, because they've earned their money and now they're going home, going on vacation. It's not like that. But this is our life. We genuinely love what we do and, what's more, we love the place we're representing because, after all, it's the place that gives us the right conditions to evolve and to be what we're going to be, and what we are. So it ends up being a bit of mixed emotions for me. I'm happy with the achievements, but there could have been more."

TEH FANS

"The truth is one: when Benfica is winning, it becomes what Benfica is. Benfica when it's not winning - and I mean when it's winning trophies or when it's losing trophies... When you're winning a game and when you're losing a game, things go to extremes... Good and bad.  So I think you have to start dosing the way you treat people a little, because we're people too, we're doing everything we can to get the best outcome in the game, in this case, in every game. Trying to win, because what matters is the end, what matters are the trophies we win in the end.And I think that a lot of the time, because a game doesn't go well, starting to doubt what's being done doesn't help. And it's never going to help anyone. The pressure? We have pressure. That's part of our day-to-day life, it's not because people say that A, B or C is bad or good that it will help. The goal is to support Benfica, and the goal is for Benfica to win titles. We never put ourselves before the club, and I speak for myself, I don't put myself before the club and I will never put myself before any club."

NOSTALGIA?

"As I said, this is going to cost me more than I could ever have imagined, because I would know that I would have to leave and I would leave on my own two feet. Never in my life would I expect that I wouldn't be able to act anymore. I always said that the time would come, and I would know when it was time to leave, and that's exactly what I did. I reached a point where I felt it was time, it was my time. And that was that."

A TRUE BENFIQUISTA

"I'm a Benfica fan, yes. That's true. I have no problem saying that. I love Benfica. Nowadays, it really confuses me how what matters are photos on social media, what matters is kissing the symbol or the way you celebrate a goal, when you should be looking at who you are, what you do and also what you... how you feel about the club. It's not because I don't show feelings, because it's the way I am as a person, that I don't feel for Benfica or that I don't give a damn about Benfica, or whatever. I think the way I was at Benfica was the right way. It's the way I am, it's the way I am. I'm not going to change because people think I should post things on social media, or celebrate more effusively, because that's not what makes me love Benfica more or what makes me hate Benfica. I like Benfica and I love Benfica, in my own way, and that's the way it's always going to be."

WHAT HE HAS GIVEN THE CLUB AND WHAT THE CLUB HAS GIVEN HIM IN EIGHT YEARS

"I don't feel that I've given much to Benfica. What I feel, and what I will always feel, is: I felt Benfica. I was here because I wanted to be, I stayed here because I decided to stay, I was never forced to. And, above all, my family was happy here, so if my family was happy, and we had a hard time... There were, of course, and there are in life... We've been through good situations, we've been through bad situations, but I honestly don't hold any grudges. But I think one thing you also have to have at Benfica, and you have to feel it, is a bit of respect and gratitude, because we're not robots, we're not machines. I've seen a lot of my colleagues and friends, who have given a lot to Benfica, and people have no idea of the feeling they create in people by doing what they do."

WHAT HAS ARRIVED AND WHAT IS NOW LEAVING. WHICH RAFA ARE YOU TODAY?

"Nice beard. This is me. After eight years, I've learned a lot. I'm definitely a combination of the two, but I'm much more this one, because we'll always look back and think that we're an improved version of ourselves, and that's what I think of myself. I think I got worse in some aspects too, but that's part of it. But, above all, I tried to improve the things I did less well and the way I was probably less good. Maybe. I'm certainly a combination of the two, but I'm the player who said goodbye in the last game [against Arouca], of course. And the person."