Benfica are the KINGS of business: 1 BILLION in player sales
Benfica is the king of business, investing little money generated more than 1 billion in player sales.
Benfica are one of the "big three" in Portugal, along with Porto and Sporting CP. This team is the most successful team in the history of the Iberian country with 37 Primeira Liga titles and even the top winner of the Taça de Portugal (Portuguese Cup). In addition, to these achievements, we must add 2 UEFA Champions League (61, 62). But this team not only stands out in Portugal but also in the rest of the world. Benfica are considered the king of business, since 2000 it obtained more than 1 billion euros in player sales. And to get these profits, they invested very little money. This club was characterized by buying "cheap" players, enhancing them, and then selling them for millions of euros.
Benfica is part of the "big three" of Portugal
Historically, the Portuguese League has never been characterized by millionaire signings. In fact, if we review the average of the most expensive transfers in Portugal, we will discover that the average is around 20 million euros. This is an insignificant figure compared to what the Premier League, Serie A or La Liga spend. The most expensive signing in the history of Benfica and Portugal was Darwin Nuñez, bought for less than 30 million euros. So the only way for Portuguese clubs to compete in Europe is to buy young players with the aim of making them elite players in the future. And in this, Benfica is the king of business.
The most recent case is Darwin Nuñez, sold to Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool. This player only spent 2 seasons with Benfica (85 games, 48 goals and 15 assists), and thanks to that, he was sold for 75 million euros. The gain was +50 million.
Darwin Nuñez was sold to Liverpool for 75M euros.
Another case was João Félix. The skilled striker made 43 appearances for Benfica in 2018-19, scoring 20 goals (and 11 assists) at just 19 years old. Those figures were hard to ignore for Diego Simeone, who was looking for a replacement for Antoine Griezmann. In the end, the Colchonero team paid 124 million euros, becoming the fourth most expensive footballer of all time, after Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, and Philippe Coutinho. Since the player was from the team's youth academy, the 124M was a full win. The same happened with the Portuguese defender Ruben Dias. The player emerged from the team's youth academy and years later, he was sold to Manchester City for 71M.
Atlético Madrid paid 124 million euros for João Félix
The Argentine Angel Di María was another of the great discoveries of this club. Benfica paid Rosario Central 8 million euros for 100% of the player's signing. After playing for 3 seasons in Portugal, Real Madrid made an offer of 33M and took the player. 25M profit.
Ederson, the Brazilian goalkeeper became a Benfica player when he was just 16 years old. They saw in him the potential to be a great goalkeeper, and they were not wrong. After several seasons in the team and having become Benfica's star goalkeeper, Manchester City paid 40 million euros for him. An impressive figure considering that these figures for goalkeepers are not normal.
Benfica sold Di Maria for four times the price
They also signed Alex Witsel for 9M, Nicolás Gaitán for 8.5M, and Rodrigo Moreno for 6M. Later, the club sold them for 40 million to the Belgian, 25M to the Argentine, and 30M to the Spanish. In this way, the profits from these sales were 300%. Another impressive case was the Mexican Raúl Jiménez, who was bought from Atlético Madrid for only 5M euros and later, Wolverhampton bought him for 38M euros.
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