Benfica Lisbon believes that coach Roger Schmidt will remain in the long term thanks to a significant increase in the release clause. As the trade magazine “A Bola” (Saturday) reports, the clause in Schmidt’s new contract has been raised to 30 million euros. Previously, an interested club could have signed the former Bundesliga coach for ten million euros next summer.
Schmidt had extended his contract with the Portuguese record champions on Friday evening until June 30, 2026.
He has an excellent team in Lisbon
“To be honest, at first I didn’t think I’d sign a new contract so early,” said the 56-year-old. “But I did it with 100 percent conviction. I feel like I’m in the right place and I’m very happy that Benfica believes in me.”
He has an excellent team in Lisbon. “We hope that we will continue to play good football. We want to win titles and that is a great motivation for me.” His original contract would have expired in the summer of 2024.
I’m very happy that Benfica believe in me
Roger Smith
Roger Schmidt is well known in the Bundesliga from his almost three-year tenure at Bayer Leverkusen, before that he was employed as a top-class coach at SC Paderborn and RB Salzburg. On March 5, 2017, one day after a 2: 6 at Borussia in Dortmund, Schmidt was released at Bayer.
At the time, Leverkusen justified the release as unavoidable and necessary in order not to miss the goals that they had set themselves. In this context, the managing director Michael Schade emphasized Schmidt’s good dealings with young players and their development under him.
Schmidt was not without controversy in the Bundesliga
Schmidt was definitely a dazzling figure in the Bundesliga and not without controversy. On February 21, 2016, during the Bundesliga home game against Dortmund, Schmidt was expelled from the interior of the stadium by referee Felix Zwayer.
Roger Schmidt complained to the fourth official after a controversial free-kick decision that led to Dortmund’s winning goal. However, he refused to leave the interior of the stadium, so the referee stopped the game for about nine minutes and sent both teams to the dressing rooms.
Schmidt was banned from playing five Bundesliga games, two of which were suspended until June 30, 2017, and fined 20,000 euros by the DFB sports court for unsportsmanlike conduct.
In June 2017, Schmidt signed a contract with the Chinese first division club Beijing Guoan. He won the Chinese Cup with the team from Beijing in 2018. At the end of July 2019, however, he was released early there as well. Schmidt has been the head coach of PSV Eindhoven since the 2020/21 season. The corresponding contract was concluded on March 11, 2020 and ran for two years.
In May 2022, Schmidt then signed a contract in Lisbon. Benfica had been trying to expand the cooperation for a long time. In addition to an increase in the exit clause, the main focus of the negotiations was an increase in the basic salary.
In the league, the traditional club leads the table by a large margin and is about to win its first championship title since 2019. Schmidt and his team have reached the quarter-finals in the Champions League, where they meet the Italian top team Inter Milan. In total, Benfica Lisbon has only lost two competitive games this season.
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