The revelation of 2022: From a reserve in the B team to the World Cup and a 100 million-euros price tag in six months

When he read the final list of passengers for the World Cup last night, the Portuguese coach Fernando Santos also wanted to issue a public apology to some players for whom there was no place in the squad. Some famous names like Mario Rui, Renato Sanches, Joao Moutinho, Goncalo Guedes...

And again, on Santos's list was the name of a player who had never before been invited to the A national team. And no one had the slightest doubt that the national team coach made the right move.

His name is Antonio Silva, he turned 19 years old 11 days ago and plays for Benfica as a stopper. And he can easily be called the football discovery of 2022. Santos does not take him to Qatar just to feel the atmosphere of the World Cup, but as a player who is seriously counted on. It won't be a surprise if he starts in the starting 11 alongside Ruben Dias in tandem.

This time last year, Antonio Silva was a reserve in Benfica's B team. And an occasional reserve. He was often not in the protocol. However, he led the youth national team of Portugal as a captain, played for the Benfica youth team in the Youth Champions League and the U23 team of the Lisbon Eagles on the domestic stage. Only occasionally would he get a chance to sit on the bench of the senior B team in the second league caravan.

Benfica's youngsters started the Champions League with a debacle against Dynamo Kyiv and then crushed everything in front of them until the end. Against Barcelona 4-0 and 3-0, against Bayern 4-0 and 2-0, they took revenge on the Kyiv squad (1-0), knocked out the dangerous Midtjylland, in the quarter-finals they overcame the city rival Sporting 4-0, in the semi-finals they eliminated Juventus, and then in the final, they destroyed Red Bull's talent laboratory from Salzburg with a convincing 6-0. Antonio Silva played every minute in the quest for the title of European champion, and Benfica kept a clean sheet in seven out of ten games. Good games in the youth Champions League allowed him to make his debut for Benfica's B team at the end of the season. And to fight for a place in the first team's pre-season.

As it usually happens, the kids undergo initiation at their first pre-season with the A squad, they are there to 'smell' the senior football and to learn. It is rare that a teenager can hope for a more serious role at the very beginning of the pre-season.

At the time, the new coach Roger Schmidt had just arrived in Benfica, he didn't know 'who's who' in the team and everyone was the same to him at the beginning. Out of the center defenders, there was the experienced captain Nicolas Otamendi, occasional Brazilian representative Lucas Verissimo, experienced Belgian Jan Vertonghen, talented Brazilian Morato, who made his way from the B team the season before, and the latest addition, Joao Vitor, who was snatched in front of Porto who were pretty much waiting for him from Corinthians, for almost 10 million euros. And there was the unknown youngster Antonio Silva... On paper, it seemed like a dream.

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But in reality, it was different. Due to representative duties in Argentina, Otamendi was late for the pre-season gathering. Vertonghen also, plus announced his departure and insisted on a transfer to his homeland... Verissimo had a serious knee ligament injury. João Vitor came from Corinthians with an ankle injury.

That Benfica's pre-season confirmed that you need to have luck in both life and sports. Whether Schmidt wanted it or not, in the first preparatory match against Reading, he had to start with the stopper pair Morato - Antonio Silva. The first had only one season in the first team behind him, the second not a single game. But they fit in well and Benfica won 2-0. For the next preparatory match against Nice, Otamendi returned and started in tandem with Morato, scored and set up a goal at halftime, and then Schmidt gave Silva a chance in the second half. And again Benfica won. And again they did not concede a goal.

Morato and Otamendi started in tandem for the remaining three warm-up matches. Against Fulham (5-1), Girona (2-0) and overall against Newcastle (3-2). Silva got a chance from the bench only against Fulham and Girona.

Schmidt "drafted" the defense for the opening of the season, thundered through the Champions League qualifiers against Midtjylland and Dynamo Kyiv and had a strong start in the championship: Arucca 4-0, Casa Pia 1-0 and Boavista 3-0. In that match against Boavista, 19-year-old Antonio Silva got a chance to make his debut, because Otamendi was booked.

"When I started last season in the U23 team, it never crossed my mind that after a year I would be here where I am," said Silva at the beginning of the season.

Already in the next round against Pacos Ferreira, Morato was injured, Vertonghen moved to Anderlecht, Verissimo and Vitor have not yet recovered, Brooks has just arrived and Schmidt had only Otamendi and Silva available as stoppers for the first match against Visela. From that moment on, Antonio Silva never dropped out from the starting line-up. The others recovered, the coach had all the stoppers at his disposal, but Silva was untouchable.

"I love it! He brought us stability in defense, and he is very important in the construction of the game. He has a great attitude on the field, and off it he is very humble," said Roger Schmidt about Silva.

He played all six matches in the Champions League, scored a goal against Juventus, shone and was one of the most deserving of the great performances and the Eagles' first place in the group. In the double match against Paris Saint-Germain's atomic attack, he masterfully commanded the defense, which conceded two goals and recorded two draws. Recently, he even scored two goals in a match against Estoril. And Benfica with him in the team has 14 wins and three draws!

With a height of 187 centimeters, he excels in jumping, uses his right foot better, but has no problems as a left stopper either. In the youth team, it didn't matter to him whether he played in a line with two or three at the back. For a player who only recently turned 19 years old, he is impressive in reading the opponent's game, he positions himself phenomenally, he is confident on the ball and in passing (93.8 percent correct passes this season). Although he seems physically 'weak', he is not handicapped when it comes to intense duels. He still has work to do in the gym, his legs are still thin, but that's all normal for someone who has gone from debuting in the B team to travelling to the World Cup in six months. What's most impressive about Silva's game is the amount of confidence he plays with. As if he has several senior seasons in the Champions League behind him...

"I follow Benfica when I find time, and I really like the young Antonio Silva. I have no doubt that he will play at the highest level and that he is a player for big clubs in the Premier League. He has huge potential," Serbian midfielder Nemanja Matić said recently.

Of course, all this did not go unnoticed by the richest European clubs. Silva has a contract with Benfica until 2027 and a buyout clause of 100,000,000 euros. He is represented by Jorge Mendes, who already completed the transfer of stopper Ruben Dias to Manchester City from Benfica for almost 80,000,000 euros. If Dias was worth that much then, it makes sense that someone would pay Silva more now, because the prices have also risen in these two years. The first to throw the hook was Paris Saint-Germain director Luis Campos, who this summer during negotiations on the transfer of Julian Draxler to Lisbon, already announced to the management of Benfica that he wanted the pole position when they wanted to sell Silva. Apparently, Pep Guardiola is also impressed by the young Portuguese and could pair him up with Dias.

"I am the first to accept responsibility for the moves made and the players invited. We watched him and made a decision based on his games", was all Santos said last night when asked about the call-up for Silva.

It is Benfica's youngsters who should very likely form the stopper tandem of the national team in Qatar. Although Antonio Silva was never called up to the national team until last night, Fernando Santos is also aware that everything in this young man's career is going incredibly fast and that he is already ripe to start. The second option is the newly recovered veteran Pepe, and the third is Danilo Pereira from Paris Saint-Germain, who is something between a stopper and a defensive midfielder.

The fact that Benfica have not lost since the beginning of the season is largely related to the teenager from the back line, who until half a year ago was known only to the most devoted supporters of the Lisbon team. Six months later, the discovery of European football and one of the potential new stars of the World Cup in Qatar.