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While Portuguese clubs mind their own business, they also feel very proud of some of their former players who now succeed elsewhere.

That’s the case of Benfica and Ruben Dias, with the local media often mentioning how the former Eagles centre-back has been doing so well at Manchester City.

The defender is today named in a story from A Bola, where they interview video analyst Marco Pedroso.

The Benfica employee explained Dias’ development at the Portuguese side, and the work that was put in to make the player reach his full potential.

Ruben had a competitive side… he faced every training session and every game very intensely, the post-training work Ruben did to evolve and minimise his weaknesses made him one of the most complete central defenders today,” said Pedroso.

Ruben Dias arrived at Benfica’s academy back in 2008, going through many of their youth levels, and was promoted to the first team in 2017.

The centre-back made 137 appearances for the Eagles, winning the Portuguese League in 2018/19. He ended up being sold to Manchester City in the summer of 2020 in a deal worth around €70m.

With 175 games for Pep Guardiola’s so far, Dias has already won a Champions League and three Premier League trophies, and there could be more to come before the end of this season.