Under Roger Schmidt, Benfica have been one of the most exciting teams to watch in the 2022/23 season. With dominant tactics, Schmidt has brought back stability and success after a turbulent season at the Estadio da Luz. Consequently, despite being drawn into a very difficult group with Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica have proven to be one of the dark horses of this season’s UEFA Champions League, and have a very good chance of reaching he finals. Domesically, they sit at the top of the Primeira Liga as one of the favourites to win the title.
After losing Darwin Nunez to Liverpool and Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea among a few other players, the Encarnados have rebuilt their squad with exciting players. First, very promising players like Joao Victor and Alexander Bah have arrived. Additionally, President Rui Costa has signed high-quality players such as Julian Draxler, David Neres, and Fredrik Aursnes to enhance Schmidt’s side. With entertaining tactics and a talented squad, Benfica have certainly been a team to watch this season.
Who is Roger Schmidt?
Schmidt is a former professional footballer. He was an attacking midfielder with third-tier German side SC Verl, and made more than 200 appearances for them. The part-time engineer (this was the 80s and lower league German football) never really progressed to any sort of higher level and spent most of his career in Germany’s north Rhine-Westphalia.
He began managing lower-league side Delbrucker SC as a coach but has admitted “I never wanted to be a football manager”. “It was a hobby to begin with,” he added.
He impressed at Delbrucker and a few years later found himself at Red Bull Salzburg, tasked with winning the Austrian Bundesliga. Which he did. In 2014 he did the league and cup double with Salzburg and was headhunted by German giants Bayer Leverkusen, moving to Germany after two years at Red Bull.
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With his move to Bayer Leverkusen in 2014, Schmidt had the chance to prove that his football style also works in a Top Five League — and it started brilliantly when Karim Bellarabi scored after 11 seconds in Schmidt’s first Bundesliga game.
He hit the ground running and finished fourth in this first season at Bayer and third in his second. But things fell apart in his third at the BayArena. Come the penultimate month of the season, Leverkusen were 10th and after a 6-2 drubbing by Dortmund, he was given his marching orders.
He then joined PSV in 2020, completely…
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