At this stage of the season, there’s probably no doubt Manchester City got it right when spending €68m on the signing of Ruben Dias from Benfica last summer.
The Portuguese defender had a quick adaptation to Pep Guardiola’s side, and managed to make the team’s defence a lot stronger than it used to be in the past couple of years.
Dias’ first season in the Premier League is praised in a piece from Record columnist Rui Silva at the weekend. The journalist claims the 23-year-old is already ‘one of the best in Europe’.
“To get to a super-difficult league for central defenders like the Premier League and make a dream season in the first adventure abroad is only within the reach of the authentic champions and Ruben belongs to the very small group of foreigners who, at the age of 23, arrived, saw and won the first year in England,” he writes.
“He’s a true warrior, he’s played the barbarity of 45 games and is playing a crucial role in the excellent season for City, who will soon be champion and is standing at the final of the Champions League.
“In my opinion, the two defenders, due to their performance, who have to be in the best of this edition of the Champions League are Ruben Dias and Raphael Varane. If Manchester City are European champions, it’s very possible that Ruben Dias will also be considered the best central defender in Europe.”
Ruben Dias was also a subject in an interview from newspaper Record with Portugal national team manager Fernando Santos, which they feature on their front page today.Speaking of defensive problems he used to have in the squad a couple of years ago, he claims the Manchester City defender managed to solve most of them, and also said something about the fight to be the best in the continent.
