Fabio Coentrao is this season's first cut. Having started the week with Benfica, Fabio Coentrao was not in Saturday's training session, an absence Benfica justified as "taking care of personal business". This morning Fabio Coentrao was once again absent, but the story was way different. Despite no official confirmation from Benfica, today's "A Bola" reports that Coentrao is on his way to Feyenoord to play in the Eredivise. Feyenoord will have the option of buying Coentrao for 5mm Euros at the end of the loan period(end of this season), this was the value stipulated by Benfica, who will also be free of the winger's wages for the year.
Coentrao was never able to impress Camacho last year and went on loan to Nacional mid-season last season. His high point of the season was when he scored 2 goals against porto at the dragao, wearing the stripes of Nacional. The 20 year old had high hopes for this year, hoping to make the Benfica squad, as a result of his good outings at Nacional, but apparently could not convince Quique.
Today's training session already counted with Urreta, who made his Benfica debut, and showed interesting qualities, according to the club's site.
DiMaria did not participate in today's training session, as he will be joining Argentina's Olympic squad this coming week.
The squad will enjoy the customary day off tomorrow. On Tuesday, we should see Aissa, as well of a lot of the internationals coming back.
No word on whether Adu will be one of the returning internationals. Being that DiMaria has already left to join Argentina, I'm thinking that the US's olympic camp should be starting up soon.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Fabio Coentrao on the way to Eredivise
Saturday, July 12, 2008
2 for Fighting
Arriving in Lisbon on Saturday and headed for Seixal were 2 players, Urretavizcaya and Hadja-Aissa.
Urreta who ails from Uruguay, has apparently signed a contract with Benfica for the next 5 seasons. Hadja-Aissa, has not yet signed a contract, and will enter Benfica's training camp in hopes of convincing Quique and ultimately Benfica, to sign him.
Jonathan UrretaVizcaya is an 18 year old forward, who scored 9 goals in 15 matches played of the Uruguayan Clausura. He is a young player that was called up to the senior team and made an impact, he is also a member of the Uruguayan U-20 squad. Not much else is known about this player, with the exception that at one point or another both porto and Braga had some kind of a contact with his representatives.
He comes into a sector of the field where there's already a lot of players competing for 2 spots. Certainly Quique will be looking closely at Urreta and see if he complements the 2 forwards he will start up front, or brings a certain dynamic that will provide depth balance to the forward sector. If he does not impress Quique, it's very probable that he will end up playing somewhere else in the Liga Sagres(new sponsor and league namer).
As for Hadj Aissa, he comes from Algeria and is a 24 year old offensive midfielder, who is the owner of the number 10 jersey, of Argelian club Es Setif. He is part of the Argelian national squad and has been nicknamed "Baggio", for similar styles of hair and playing. He was named the 2007 Arab Champions League MVP, and was considered the best young player of the Algerian league in 06. He has been linked to moves to Europe before, but this will be his first experience outside of Algeria. Certainly recommended by Eurico Gomes, who had previously pointed out Binya to Benfica.
Es Setife reports on their website that Benfica has bought Hadj Aissa for 400k euros, but word from the Portuguese media, is that he came on a trial period. Certainly that would be the amount Benfica would pay for the Arab Baggio, if he shows enough talent.
So, two for fighting for a spot on the 25 Quique has announced he will carry.
On the 18th of July Benfica will have all of the players at camp.
Let's hope that these two players can both be good enough to make the squad, on one side, the 18 year old still has a natural margin of progression,making him a prospect. On the other side, if Aissa's acquisition is dependent on his talent, then there's no loss, if he in fact does not impress Quique.
Wish them both the best.
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