Xavier: Abel to succeed at the top?

Who are SL Benfica

Formed: 1904
Nickname: As Águias (The Eagles), Encarnados (The Reds)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs' Cup: 1961, 1962; (1963), (1965), (1968), (1988), (1990)
• UEFA Cup: (1983)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 32 (2010)
• Portuguese Cup: 24 (2004)

History

• On 28 February 1904, Sport Lisboa e Benfica – originally known as Grupo Sport Lisboa – was founded at a meeting in a Lisbon pharmacy, Farmácia Franco, involving 24 men led by Cosme Damião.

• After winning ten Lisbon regional championships, a first national title arrived at the 15,000-capacity Campo das Amoreiras in 1935/36. Benfica moved to Campo Grande, where on-the-pitch success continued, and then to the Estádio da Luz in 1954.

• Under Hungarian Béla Guttmann the Eagles ended Real Madrid CF's monopoly of the European Champion Clubs' Cup in 1960/61, beating FC Barcelona in the final. The next year they defeated Madrid to retain the trophy, aided by a new young signing from Mozambique: Eusébio.

• With Eusébio and a considerable number of Portuguese internationals in the squad, Benfica monopolised the domestic game in the 1960s, reaching – but losing – another three European Cup finals, in 1963, 1965 and 1968. The Encarnados suffered further European Cup final disappointment in 1988 and 1990 following two more decades of dominance alongside Sporting Clube de Portugal and FC Porto.

• The club earned their 30th Portuguese title in 1993/94 but had to wait eleven years for No31 under Giovanni Trapattoni. By then Benfica were playing at the new Estádio da Luz, rebuilt to stage the UEFA EURO 2004 final. The Eagles made it 32 in the 2009/10 season under Jorge Jesus, ending Porto's four-year monopoly.

Club records

Most appearances: Nené (802)
Most goals: Eusébio (638)
Record victory: Benfica 13-1 AD Sanjoanense (Primeira Divisão, 27 April 1947)
Record defeat: Sporting Clube de Portugal 7-1 Benfica (Primeira Divisão, 14 December 1986)

Meet The Manager

He may not be the most decorated player on the planet, but Abel Xavier is certainly one of the most decorative Portuguese players of all time, with his outrageous blond mane and matching facial hair. His career has been equally colourful, playing for a total 11 clubs in 7 countries.

Born in Mozambique, Xavier moved to Portugal still a child. Upon spotting that the youngster combined a passion for the game and raw talent, he was recruited by the youth academy of Estrela da Amadora, where he made his debut in 1990.


Three seasons, 85 matches and 5 goals later his performances earned him a switch to neighbouring Lisbon giants, Benfica, where Xavier won a league championship in his second year with the club in 1994.


After giving the club a flavour of his ability with 2 goals in 19 appearances, picking up a Dutch Super Cup in the process for PSV, Xavier upped and offed again as he hopped across the North Sea to sign for Premiership outfit Everton.

After two seasons and 43 appearances, Xavier made what was his shortest ever move in geographical terms as he signed for Merseyside rivals, Liverpool. Xavier almost won a Premiership title with The Reds in 2002, playing in 19 matches and scoring one goal, but the club decided not to retain the player.

Having just joined Boro, Xavier endured the darkest moment of his career when he failed a drugs test in November 2005, and was slapped with an 18-month suspension. Xavier always maintained that he has never taken any performance enhancing substance and his ban was reduced to 12 months in June 2006.

He returned to action in the 2006/07 season, where his fine performances led to rumours of a yet another move to a more ambitious club, but Xavier opted to repay Middlesbrough’s faith in him and proved that he still has the ability to mix it at the highest level at 34 years of age. To round of one of the most remarkable careers of any Portuguese in the history of the game, Xavier had a spell alongside David Beckham at US team LA Galaxy.

Xavier earned 20 caps for the national team, scoring 2 goals. His most memorable match in a Portugal shirt came in the 2000 European Championships when Portugal faced France in the semi-final.