Brazilian centre-back Morato arrived at Nottingham Forest from Benfica in the summer, joining the club on a permanent basis.
The move came about after the defender wasn’t a regular for Benfica, where he was on the bench quite a few times last season and most of his appearances came as a substitute.
He’s played twice for Forest this season and now, Benfica president Rui Costa has spoken about why the player was moved on by the Portuguese giants.
Rui Costa spoke to BTV, as relayed by TMW, and stated that the 23-year-old’s position in the Benfica pecking order led to the Nottingham Forest move going through quickly.
He said: “Two years ago, Morato had a different projection, but we didn’t want to devalue the resource and damage the player’s career by keeping him as a fourth centre-back.
“He probably would have had a few minutes during the season, so he left. We kept the three centre-backs, plus one from the youth team.”
Morato will certainly have something to prove, having been allowed to leave Benfica so easily. Nottingham Forest and the Premier League is the ideal place for him to do that, and to show he should have had a bigger role in Lisbon.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have started the season well, and there’s a platform there for Morato to benefit from.
