EXCLUSIVE: Portugal and Pep Guardiola both thanking Benfica's talent factory for Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Co... with club's sales totalling nearly £800MILLION in past seven years

They had a problem at Benfica. A nice problem, but one that needed correcting all the same. Ruben Dias talked too much. Too involved. Too desperate to exact the highest standards from those around him.

He was 18 and fresh into the club's B team, operating in Portugal's second division. This was a youngster that had displayed aptitude for leadership since joining the academy a decade earlier – those qualities actually outweighing his defensive ability initially – but required fine-tuning. 

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Dias, in effect, was attempting to act the all-encompassing leader of men before he had become one himself.  

Ruben Dias was already a leader at 18 and sometimes was too demanding of his team-mates
Manchester City have benefitted hugely from the success of Benfica's academy structure

'We had some challenges,' grins Benfica B coach Nelson Verissimo. 'Ruben wanted to communicate with the whole team, from the full backs to the strikers.

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'We explained to him that he should maintain this leadership capacity, but without wearing himself out too much. Do it closer, with those who were near him. 

'Physically he was no more developed than his colleagues. But mentally and emotionally, he was clearly above average.' 

Dias took this on board – eventually. Then Benfica boss Rui Vitoria encountered similar issues when the central defender was promoted to the first team two years later. Now he is destined for future captaincy roles at club level and with Portugal. Clearly something twigged along the way.

They take great pride at Benfica in not only nurturing talent but the character of their academy products, of which there are plenty. 

There was pride when Dias collapsed in tears on his final appearance at the Stadium of Light last September. They use the 24-year-old as a case study for their current crop of teenagers, delivering talks on his rise. A few more will earn a mention, too.  

Manchester City trio Dias, Bernardo Silva and Joao Cancelo were due to make up one corner of Portugal's dressing room this summer, before Cancelo's positive Covid test cruelly ruled him out of the tournament.

All were made in Benfica, as the club slogan goes, and have flourished at City. It is no accident that Pep Guardiola and City's sporting director Txiki Begiristain, renowned for their attention to detail on personalities, have leaned towards players hailing from Lisbon.

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Joao Cancelo made just one league appearance for Benfica and went on to play for Juventus

'Ruben was like everyone else – they had spent 90 per cent of the time playing offensively in the younger teams,' Verissimo says. 'When they get to me, it's 50-50 against older, more experienced opponents. Ruben grew a lot in the defensive gaps that youth players bring when they get here.

'He had a strong conviction that he had to get to the A team. I can give you a curious example: in the B team, we sometimes tried to put him on the left side of the centre back position, and he answered several times he preferred to play on the right side, because he was convinced that it would be in this position that he would be able to reach the A team. And he was right, that's precisely what happened.'

Dias – ironically the left-sided man alongside John Stones at City - went on to make a significant impact with the senior team but Silva and Cancelo did not. Just a solitary league appearance each, City picking them up from Monaco and Juventus. Their stories, according to Verissimo, typify why the elite teams across Europe all jockey for space around Benfica's conveyor belt.

'This doesn't have to be a problem, because they left for good clubs and this also values the 'Made in Benfica' brand and our youth development project,' he says. 'We're talking about two players who made it to the A team, didn't manage to impose themselves, but made it to other big clubs in Europe.' 

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The Benfica model is an intriguing one. The academy's technical director Pedro Marques – who spent eight years at City, predominantly as an analyst under Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini – discusses the pillars of success and sustainability.

There is the scouting from a young age, with 200 pairs of eyes – from full-time roles to unpaid spotters – in a fiercely competitive market with Porto and crosstown rivals Sporting. 

Joao Felix was sold to Atletico Madrid for £114m as Europe's elite keep looking to Benfica

The five talent centres dotted across the country, making sure kids are not uprooted from their families too soon before moving to the capital. There are the rhythmic dance and gymnastics classes acting as 'physical literacy'. The element of street football worked into sessions. The opportunity to quickly compete in men's football at B team level.

Around 12 seasons ago, Benfica realised they could no longer compete on the continent for talent so went in a different direction, ploughing investment into what has made the academy structure monstrous. Sales total almost £800million in the past seven years. In four of the last five, the biggest transfer involved an academy graduate: Dias, Joao Felix, Renato Sanches and City goalkeeper Ederson.

'It's the water we have, you know? The water they drink,' Marques laughs. 'There are more to come. We try to instil emotion for the club. It's the biggest in Portugal. The people support two clubs over here. You support one of the big clubs and your local team. Benfica clearly moves more people.

'So to develop here, it's important that the players grow with that feeling. They are representing a lot of people. They need to leave the shirt in a better place. It's an eclectic place, we have futsal, basketball, handball. One thing we all share is that commitment to win, the competitive spirit.

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'We're different. We develop them in different positions. We want them to be adaptable. Able to adapt to different circumstances – some will play for City, or Wolves, others in France's second division.'  

Adaptable is how you might describe Cancelo, showcasing positional dexterity under Guardiola this term. Verissimo is unsurprised and pointed to energy as a chief reason for that. 'He was a rebel,' he says. 'Being rebellious is good, he does things out of the box. It's innate. It allowed him to play a different game to others.

Jorge Jesus was in charge when Bernardo Silva showed promise. The pair do not get on

'He could decide matches. In moments when it looked like he was about to lose the ball, he was able to control it. Joao's main problem for us was defensive but he could unbalance the opposition on the right. Of course, there were times he created some defensive imbalances in the team but it was also up to us, as coaches, to organise the team so that it didn't happen.'

Cancelo's mother, Filomena, died in a car accident during the January of his first season at B-team level. He and his brother were both in the vehicle with her. He did not train for a month afterwards and has dedicated every title to her memory. 'We had to be there for him,' Verissimo adds. 'You have to understand the person behind the player. Joao managed to get up and continue his path. His mentality at that time was that he would have to focus even more because he had to take responsibility for his father and brother.'

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Context exists for everything. Cancelo did not push through - Maxi Pereira and Nelson Semedo preferred at right back - and he went to Valencia, coached briefly by Gary Neville.

Silva, too, encountered difficulties. Not all of these players are Joao Felix, picked up and shining almost immediately. Silva's failure to break through is more to do with Jorge Jesus, who was in charge when he showed promise and is now back in the hotseat. The pair do not get on and Silva, an ardent Benfica supporter, holds frustration at how his time with the senior side was managed. A shame for those who had developed him, too.

Ruben Dias (second from right) was left in tears when it was confirmed he was leaving Benfica

'Bernardo was a magician,' Verissimo says. 'He was one of those players who didn't need to defend. The whole team knew that when the ball reached him, he could create spaces and serve them in attack.'

Silva had been kept back in lower age groups as a youngster, allowed to grow at his own rate, and then burst into life at Under-19 level. From there, he has barely checked the rear-view mirror. He was one of those every coach knew from a young age. There surely must be hope he returns later in his career.

Verissimo is talking about the talent of Silva, Felix and Joao Carvalho – the ex-Nottingham Forest midfielder who has not hit their heights - when he breaks off. 

'We currently have a case of an Under-17 player who has this type of evaluation,' he says. 'And the question we sometimes talk about, in a funny way is, 'What do we have to do so that we don't screw him up?' 

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Chances are that they won't. That is to the benefit of teams like City, but also a national team bidding to defend their European title.