By Zach Lowy
From Daniel Banjaqui to Anísio Cabral to José Neto, we’ve seen quite a few players go from winning international silverware with Portugal to breaking into the Benfica first team under José Mourinho. And the next player to do so could very well be Ricardo Neto.
Born on August 26, 2008, Ricardo Neto was mainly raised in the Casal da Boba housing complex in Amadora but transitioned between living with his father and mother after they divorced.
After joining Benfica’s academy in 2018, Neto ascended the ranks and helped the Eagles win the U-15 national championship in 2022/23, before guiding them to the U-17 Second Division National Championship in 2023/24. Similarly to other defenders like Carlos García, Neto made his mark from a young age with his country, having already amassed 26 caps for Portugal’s youth teams.
After winning the National Championship with the ‘Juvenis’ in 2024/25, Neto headed to Albania to take part in the 2025 UEFA European Under-17 Championship, where he led Portugal to victory to secure their seventh title. Six months later, he went to Qatar to take part in the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup, where he played an integral role in Portugal winning the tournament. Portugal claimed won the third World Cup in its history, at the male or female level, having previously won the U-20 World Cup (then called the FIFA World Youth Championship) in 1989 and 1991.
Since then, Neto has kept his pedal to the medal, making his UEFA Youth League debut and debuting for Benfica B in the Premier League International Cup. All things considered, he’s played 20 times this season for Benfica, including four matches in the Liga Revelação de Sub-23 as well as 13 matches in the Campeonato Nacional de Sub-19. GBC Ghana spoke to Neto about various topics, including:
What was it like to be able to win the World Cup not only with your Benfica teammates, but with the friends you played with as a child?
As I said, it was very important that we all knew each other. We’ve been friends for a while, and I think it helped a lot that we were all united. That was the biggest factor. It wasn’t so much on an individual level: it was more collective, and not just the Benfica players, but all the other players on the national team.
The fact that we’ve known each other for a while now, and we’ve also played a lot of games with each other. Being in the same championship and always having training camps together helped a lot. I think that’s what he needed most to achieve in the world of football.
You usually play for Benfica’s U19 team but occasionally move up to the U23s. What are the main differences between those two levels of competition?
I think that going up to the U-23s helps you grow a lot, it helps you face new challenges against older players who have more experience than you, and it already gives you a glimpse of what it will be like in a few years from here. It helps you come to grips with the higher level that you might find yourself playing at in the future.
Has this season met your expectations, or perhaps have there been some things that have surprised you?
So far, nothing has surprised me. Everything has been going according to my expectations. I was expecting a difficult championship. I think I’m also achieving what I want. I’m managing to progress in the areas that I intended to progress in and fulfill the objectives that I intended to achieve. In the end, I think the goal is the same for everyone: everyone wants to win the Championship.
Lastly, I want to know what the main goals are for you this season, both as a team and individually.
On an individual level, I’ve already managed to achieve some of the goals I set at the beginning of the season, which were to debut in the UEFA Youth League and train with the first team. A long time ago, before I achieved these goals, I established these goals of debuting in the second league and winning the Junior Championship and the UEFA Youth League.
