What will become of Jesus? Benfica is still looking for shirt 9 and loses R $ 205 million with a fall in the Champions League | Portuguese soccer

Benfica lost 2-1 to PAOK and he didn’t even play the playoffs. If it goes ahead and falls into the next stage, it would be entitled to at least 5 million euros (31 million reais). Now, not even that. He will go to the Europa League, and the difference in prize money between the two tournaments is large (see table below).

• The opposition candidate jokes: “Cavani’s great performance”

If they reach the group stage of the Champions League, Jorge Jesús’ team would guarantee 38,518 million euros (240 million reais). The value corresponds to the single quota granted to all participating clubs and the coefficient for the UEFA ranking of the last 10 years, in which Benfica occupies the 12th position.

In the Europa League, the Incarnates are guaranteed only 5.5 million euros (34.7 million reais). The difference between the two competitions is 32.9 million euros (R $ 205 million reais). The amount is higher than what Benfica paid to carry out their largest contract in history, forward Darwin Núñez, who joined the club for 24 million euros (153 million reais).

The Portuguese team’s earnings could be even higher with UEFA’s values ​​for each group stage win. While the entity pays 2.7 million euros (16.8 million reais) for a Champions League victory, in the Europa League it will be 570 thousand euros.

UEFA also distributes a value from the so-called “fund market”, which assesses the club’s performance in national tournaments and the relevance of the television market in its home country. In addition, there are prizes in the knockout phase, with much greater weight for the Champions League (see table above).

If they reach the last 16 of the Champions League, Benfica would guarantee another 9.5 million euros (59 million reais). UEFA pays € 500 thousand (R $ 3.1 million) for each club that advances in the Europa League group stage and another € 1.1 million (R $ 6.8 million) for those that advance to the second round .

Jorge Jesús did not hide his main desire for the sequence of the season: a forward. A T-shirt 9. After frustrated negotiation with Cavani, The coach reinforced the request and reiterated the fault that an athlete of this style made against PAOK.

“We still don’t have a striker who knows how to gain space, that’s what we are looking for and want. But we only have five weeks of work, ”he said.

– The last line is not as optimized as it will be in the future, otherwise that first goal would not be necessary – analyzed the former Flamengo coach.

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Benfica have made seven signings so far this season, of which five were with values. The club spent 80 million euros (500 million reais) on forwards Darwin Núñez, Éverton and Waldschmidt, midfielder Pedrinho and winger Gilberto. Defender Vertonghen and goalkeeper Helton Leite also arrived.

The Incarnated have until October 25 to hire, the date on which the transfer window in Portugal closes. Jorge Jesús did not hide his frustration at the beginning of autumn in the Champions League, but reinforced his optimism for the improvement of the team in the rest of the tournaments of the season.

– I don’t want to escape responsibility. We knew about the difficulties of being in the Championship, the value of the teams, but I still think as I thought before this game: the most difficult thing was passing these two phases. It was not just a dream, it would be a reality to go far – he commented.

“Transmit this dream to the Europa League? No doubt. But that was not what the players, the president and the coach wanted. If we had passed (in the Champions League) everything would be easier “