Benfica head coach Roger Schmidt indirectly slams 'disgraceful' Chelsea for illegally approaching Argentina international midfiedler Enzo Fernández..

2023-01-07 15:48

Benfica head coach Roger Schmidt indirectly slams




Benfica head coach Roger Schmidt has indirectly hits out at Chelsea for going as far as to using dirty tricks just in order to sign the club's Argentina international wonderkid midfielder Enzo Fernández when he attended the pre-match press conference of the club's Portuguese Primeira Liga match against Portimonense.


Schmidt did not hold back when asked by reporters at a press conference whether he would be worried about seeing Fernández smiling and presenting another club's jersey with his name on it in a few days or weeks time, during which he indirectly slammed Chelsea.


At the same time, Schmidt also confirmed that Fernández, whose morale was disturbed after being violently pursued by the Blues and missed several training sessions with the team, after flying back to Argentina privately on the grounds of "waiting for the transfer to complete" without authorization, will be punished.


Roger Schmidt furiously said: "Obviously, the thing about him is the biggest news during the entire week for us. First of all, I want to clarify that Enzo is a very good young boy and a very good football player. He is one of the most talented players I have came across with, of course we all like him and hope he can stay at Benfica."


"Obviously, the current situation is not simple for him. He played in the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, he became a champion, he got a lot of offers, the money involved was huge, so in this situation, as a young player, when you think about these things, your morale will be disrupted, and I think everyone can understand that. But overall, he was a really good young boy. "


"Last week, he was not with us, he flew back to Argentina without authorization, he missed a few training sessions, which is unacceptable, so he will be punished, I don't want to announce what is the punishment now."


"Secondly, as I said, we don't want to sell Enzo, no one in this club wants to sell him, I don't want to, neither does the chairman. We all know that there is a (€120 million) release clause in his contract. Of course, if a player wants to leave, after the buyer pays his clause, we will not prevent him from leaving, and we will accept the fact that we have lost the player."


"Thirdly, there was a club who wanted our player. They knew we had no intention of selling the player, and they did everything they could to disrupt his morale, and they knew the only way to sign the player was just pay us the release clause, it's as straightforward as that."


"These behaviours of the club that wants to buy Enzo are very disgraceful to Benfica and to eveyone of us. I cannot accept their actions. After disturbing the morale of the player, first they pretend to be capable paying the release clause, and then said that they want to bargain again, this approach, in my opinion, is not a way for clubs to rationally deal with player transfers. The above is what we think about the entire saga about Enzo's incident, and we will not speak about the same incident in the future."


In addition, renowned Italian transfer journalist of Sky Sports, Fabrizio Romano, also confirmed subsequently that Benfica who was outraged had terminated the negotiations with the Premier League giants on the transfer of Fernández.


At the same time, Romano also quoted local media reports in Portugal saying that Fernández has been told by Schmidt that he will not to be arranged to play in this aforementioned match, and he will not even appear on the substitute bench. It is reported that Fernández has accepted the punishment and has promised to return to the club for training on Sunday.


Ben Jacobs, a renowned resident reporter of the American outlet CBS Sports, exclusively broke the news through his official Twitter account on last Sunday that UEFA may launch investigation over Chelsea who can't stop buying for allegedly violating the Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations, during which they were also accused of planning to use the loopholes in this regulation to sign Fernández.


Fernández, who is only 21 years old, only joined Benfica from River Plate last summer for €18 million. Since joining, Fernández has played 24 times for the Portuguese Primeira Liga leaders, scoring 3 goals and assisting 5 times.