Benfica rank fourth with a reported €488 million five-year balance

On 24 September 2024, Rui Costa described Benfica’s 25-player squad in an interview with the club’s television channel, BTV. He called it short, said eight players had come through the academy, and set out a clear design: two players for each position, across five competitions.

We wanted a homogeneous squad, more competitive than last year, and balanced, both from a sporting and financial point of view. I see a strong, competitive and very balanced squad, with two players for each position.

The CIES ranking puts a financial measure against that squad plan: Benfica rank fourth worldwide, with a reported positive balance of €488 million over five years. That figure combines gains from recruited players already sold with estimated increases in the market value of recruited players still at the club. It is not €488 million in cash received.

The comparison also has a threshold: CIES included clubs with more than €50 million in cumulative transfer spending and income since 2022. Its calculation counts add-ons and income from future-sale percentages, Maisfutebol, CNN Portugal and O Jogo report.

The published Benfica total is not consistent across every account. Maisfutebol, CNN Portugal and O Jogo give €488 million, while Record reports €448 million. Record breaks its figure into €167 million from players sold and €323 million in estimated value growth among current squad members; those components sum to €490 million, not its stated total.

The gains from departed players become tangible in the deals Benfica has completed. The club signed Enzo Fernández from River Plate for £15 million in summer 2022, before Chelsea paid a Premier League-record £106 million for him the following January, the BBC reports. Benfica had signed Darwin Núñez for €21 million in 2020 and sold him to Liverpool for €85 million two years later, according to the same outlet.

A separate CNN Portugal analysis compared five Benfica sales in 2024 with the players’ Transfermarkt values. João Neves, Neres, Marcos Leonardo, Morato and Paulo Bernardo brought in €143 million combined, against a combined market value of €123.5 million. Neves and Bernardo came through the academy. Morato’s €11 million fee was less striking after deductions: CNN Portugal said Benfica would receive less than €8 million, leaving a net return close to what it had paid for him.

The deals sit within a high volume of squad movement. Between Luís Filipe Vieira’s departure and December 2023, Benfica made 52 permanent transfers across five windows: 28 departures and 24 arrivals, A Bola reported. Loans were excluded, and the outlet calculated an average of 10.4 transactions per window. In summer 2022, 11 players left and nine joined; the next winter brought two departures and three arrivals. The following summer saw six arrivals and six departures, including Trubin, Kokçu and Di María joining, while Grimaldo and Gonçalo Ramos left.

By the 2024 summer market, Rui Costa said Benfica were weighing squad needs against the club’s finances. The president described the priority as building a more balanced squad, rather than adding players without regard to cost. Benfica reported €140 million in sales and €52.5 million in purchases during that window.

The difference between those totals did not mean every euro from sales was free to spend. Costa said 8.9 per cent of Benfica’s transfer revenue went on commissions, while the club paid no commissions on incoming players in that market. The figures show the financial side of the balancing act alongside the stated aim of strengthening the squad.

Benfica’s arrivals mixed substantial fees with lower-cost routes. The club paid €18 million for Vangelis Pavlidis and €11 million for Kerem Aktürkoglu; Jans-Nicklas Beste cost €8 million and Álvaro Carreras €6 million. It also paid €9.5 million to make Rollheiser’s signing permanent. Leandro Barreiro arrived on a free transfer, while Kaboré, Renato Sanches and Amdouni joined on loan. The market therefore brought together several types of deal, from sizeable purchases to temporary recruitment, within the financial limits Costa had identified.

The sharpest criticism is that Benfica recruited players not to strengthen the first team, but to send them out on loan. CNN Portugal commentator Luís Vilar said 45 players were signed for that purpose over ten years, with many making few or no first-team appearances.

45 recruitments in 10 years for loan purposes

Former president Luís Filipe Vieira acknowledged the policy, describing loans as fashionable at the time and saying Benfica followed what other clubs were doing. But he disputed Vilar’s account of their playing time, saying some had featured for Benfica and that he could not remember others.

Some played minutes. You are talking about players I know played for Benfica. Others, I don’t even remember any more.

Vieira offered Djaniny as an example: he said Benfica loaned the player to Nacional and later sold him for €15 million. CNN Portugal reports instead that Djaniny went on loan to Olhanense; it also says Transfermarkt lists his largest transfer as €10.2 million, from Santos Laguna to Al-Ahli. The accounts differ on both the loan destination and the sale figure. Benfica has not responded to Vilar’s criticism.

Benfica’s academy is a separate route into the first team, and its graduates are not part of this ranking of recruited players. The club opened four academies across Portugal in 2008, while its B team gives young players senior experience in the second division, the BBC reports. But only a select few academy players establish themselves at Benfica or succeed in Europe’s top leagues, so this pipeline does not turn every graduate into a first-team asset.

Marca describes the transfer model behind the ranking as a combination of academy production, scouting in South America and lower divisions, then selling after a player’s standout season or tournament. It calls Benfica’s record exceptional beyond Europe’s five richest leagues, with Ajax and Porto among the clubs that can approach its steady-profit approach.

At the top of this five-year comparison, Eintracht Frankfurt lead with €527 million and Real Madrid follow on €526 million. Benfica’s reported €488 million is just below Paris Saint-Germain’s €490 million and above Manchester City’s €447 million. Portugal’s other listed clubs sit further down: Porto are 12th on €338 million, Sporting 25th on €236 million, Braga 37th on €179 million, Famalicão 60th on €133 million and Vitória de Guimarães 123rd on €68 million.

Costa’s BTV description began with a squad balanced across its positions. The next scheduled match, at home to Celtic on 15 October 2026, brings that squad back into view,.

• Any sale of a recruited player still at Benfica: whether estimated value becomes a completed transfer gain.
• If CIES publishes an updated ranking: whether its valuation of Benfica’s current players has shifted.