The Curse of the Champion Coach

For 33 years, with Eriksson, a winning coach has not ended his connection with the Eagles well; Roger Schmidt threatens to be another one swallowed by the Luz crushing machine

Roger Schmidt seems to have definitively entered a spiral where his most recent predecessors fell: ending the journey badly after having started so well. It’s a kind of curse of modern times: champion coaches at Benfica tend to end the relationship abruptly, walking out the door small.

In one way or another, every winning coach at the club over the last 33 years has had problems en route, cutting it off midway. Some by their own initiative, others by the employer’s will, but with a similar outcome: closed faces after the smiles that were once open.

Sven-Goran Eriksson was the last Eagles coach to leave the club on good terms. In 1991, after three seasons (second spell, with a championship, a Super Cup and finalist in the European Champions Cup, in 1990), the parties agreed to leave for Sampdoria, preparing the transition to Toni, in a peaceful process, largely thanks to the support that the Swede left at Benfica – and which was so well expressed in the recent tribute that the Estádio da Luz paid to him.

From then on, the success stories were limited to just the first chapters. Toni was the first victim: after winning the title in 1993/1994, at a time marked by the hot summer of 1993 in which Paulo Sousa and Pacheco left Benfica for Sporting, Manuel Damásio won the elections for the presidency and removed him from the post, bringing in Artur Jorge from Paris Saint-Germain, where he had won a championship, a French Cup, a Super Cup and reached two European semi-finals (UEFA Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup).

A huge 11-year hiatus followed until the Reds returned to internal glory. With a lot of cunning and experience, Giovanni Trapattoni, who had been managing the Italy team for four years, won the title with just 65 points. But he didn’t want to continue. The famous justification of Dona Paola, his wife, went down in history: Trap intended to return to his family, but the truth is that it took him a few weeks to sign for Stuttgart, in Germany, creating many doubts in the incarnate universe about the real reasons behind to the breaking of ties with a champion coach and one of the most titled in the history of football.

From Jesus to Lage

Jorge Jesus personified the following case. Six seasons after signing with Benfica, where he experienced all kinds of emotions (he won three championships, a Portuguese Cup, a Super Cup, five League Cups and was a losing finalist in two Europa League finals), he decided to accept the invitation by the president of rival Sporting, Bruno de Carvalho, in a decision as disruptive as it was controversial – it is almost unnecessary to remember how impactful and intense the 2015/2016 season was, which would smile on the eagles led by Rui Vitória, finishing first in the League, with 88 points , the maximum ever achieved by the Reds in the competition.

But it would be the same Vitória who suffered from the same problem: after winning two championships (and another Portuguese Cup, a League Cup and two Super Cups), he saw his connection with Benfica end abruptly, in the middle of the fourth season, never recovering from the loss of the first penta to the Eagles (2017/2018). At the beginning of January 2019, and after a first attempt by Luís Filipe Vieira to hold him back (the famous “light” that made him reverse his first attempt to fire him), the four-time coach gave Bruno Lage his turn. .

The coach of team B until then took the helm, initially on a temporary basis, but it became a definitive solution, achieving what many could not imagine: reversing a seven-point deficit for FC Porto and winning the 37th title. But the state of grace was also short-lived: five days before the end of the following season’s championship (2019/2020) and after a 0-2 defeat against Marítimo, he resigned.

Roger Schmidt threatens to join the same club. The criticism he heard at the São Luís Stadium, in Faro, the objects he saw thrown at him and the coach’s harsh reaction, stating that «these people are not Benfica fans», suggest a very difficult relationship to maintain between the still reigning champion coach and the Third Ring, as there is no longer a chance, this season, to chase profit (and unless there is a catastrophe and Sporting loses the seven points they have ahead of them).

Beginning of the fall

The German appears to have never recovered from his first defeat of the season, suffering a defeat (2-3, at Bessa, against Boavista), in the first round, after having won the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira against FC Porto, with a very good position. criticism against Vlachodimos, which would force the Greek goalkeeper to leave. It was in the preview of the second round match, against Estrela da Amadora. “It wasn’t his best day, to be honest. It was very obvious, we don’t have to hide it. He played very good games, I think against Boavista he could have done better. If we look at the whole game, we see that they had three moments to score a goal and all three moments were goals”, he said, which led to a serious discussion with the then owner of the goal, promoting the starting position to Samuel Soares until giving the position to Trubin.

After the third consecutive defeat in the Champions League, at home, against Real Sociedad, on October 24th, the first white handkerchiefs appeared. “The support from the fans has been fantastic and the atmosphere is good, but if they are not happy with the way we played, they can show it. We are also not happy with the way we performed against Real Sociedad,” he said at the end.

Four days later, in anticipation of the match against Casa Pia, an expression was heard for the first time: «I don’t feel that my place is at risk.»

It would be in the game with Farense, in the first round, that the volcano erupted. The day before, on December 7, the German approached the dispute with some confidence: «Some will be unhappy, but not everyone has the same opinion, the majority of fans are satisfied with the team. The fans don’t all think the same way, some are very satisfied, even with what we’ve done in the last year and a half. If you see how Benfica was when we started and how it is now, I think there has been a great evolution. There are always more negative people, it’s normal, it’s like that in football and also in society. There are always critics waiting for something to go wrong to appear and shout loudly, but we maintain confidence. We know that the majority of fans support us.”

However, what happened during the match (1-1), being thrown objects and hearing shrill whistles when João Neves was taken out, led the coach to punch the table at the end: «In relation to what happened in the stands, I want to thank the fans who supported us and who supported us until the last minute. And to the others, the negative ones, please stay at home, because it’s not good for the team if you’re not happy with what the players did. [com o Farense], as Benfica fans stay at home. We can’t play better, fight more, be more of a team, if you weren’t happy with this team please stay at home, we can’t do better. If you are not capable of supporting the team when it puts so much effort into the game, then it is better to stay at home and come back when we are champions and celebrate at Marquês de Pombal. Doing it like this is self-destruction, if we don’t respect the players, the coach, Benfica, it’s better to stay at home, that’s my feeling. […] If the problem is me, easy, I’ll get out.”

A whole round later and with the title practically lost, the goodbye to the Portuguese Cup and League Cup and elimination in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, Luz’s crushing machine can return to action.