Benfica have started the 2025-26 Liga Portugal season with a consecutive three-match winning streak, standing fourth in the league table with nine points.
Following the recent international break, Benfica are set to face Santa Clara next in the league on September 13.
With the 2025 Benfica presidential election approaching, candidates have been making high-stakes promises to acquire the club’s supporters’ votes, including Joao Noronha Lopes, who confirmed his wishes of bringing club graduate Bernardo Silva back from Manchester City.
Amid these claims ahead of the election next year, presidential candidate Cristovao Carvalho has expressed his desire to replace current Benfica head coach Bruno Lage with former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp upon getting the job.
What did Cristovao Carvalho say about appointing Jurgen Klopp as Benfica’s new boss?
Klopp parted ways with Liverpool at the end of the 2023–24 season, mentioning he needed a break from football management. The German manager also stated that he would not coach any other team in England apart from the Reds.
Back in January this year, the 58-year-old joined RB Leipzig as the Head of Global Soccer and has a contract with the club that is valid until 2029.
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While speaking with SIC Noticias, Carvalho candidly admitted that his plans upon becoming Benfica’s new president do not include having Lage in charge beyond his contract, which expires next June. He also mentioned appointing a Champions League-winning coach is a key part of his project, citing Jurgen Klopp as the ideal candidate.
“With me, Bruno Lage won’t stay beyond his contract [which ends at the end of the season]. I need a coach of the highest level, who has already won the Champions League and who wants to win a Champions League with Benfica. There’s only one name that comes to mind: Jurgen Klopp,” as per GOAL.
“He even said that Benfica is a great club that he would like to coach one day. Someone who says this has something more than others to be at the club.”
With the Benfica presidential election slated for October 25, it remains to be seen if Carvalho makes it to the role and is able to convince Klopp to join the club, considering the former Borussia Dortmund manager has already dismissed his chances of returning to coaching.
