With the dust settling on the first round of Benfica’s presidential elections, one things for sure, we probably won’t hear from Cristóvão Carvalho again.
The candidate finished sixth out of six candidates taking just 0.18% of the vote.
That’s despite some very bold comments just as voting commenced.
“I think we’ll have a big surprise in the early hours,” he told the media. “I think this surprise will come from candidates who aren’t considered to be at the top.”
Asked if he was talking about himself Carvalho replied: “Obviously. I’m really confident and happy.
“I’m very confident that I’ll go to a runoff and that I’ll get a fantastic vote. We’ll talk about it later, but for now I’m very confident.”
As it turned out, the only real surprise was that second-placed João Noronha Lopes didn’t do as well as expected, picking up 30.26% to Rui Costa’s 42.13%.
Those two will now stage a run-off in November, unsurprisingly without Carvalho.
The sixth-place finisher probably didn’t do himself any favours during the campaign with some unfounded claims he could sign Jurgen Klopp as the team’s next coach.
Carvalho claimed he could take the former Liverpool coach out of retirement as ‘no one says no to Benfica’ but then found himself in a pickle when Costa signed Jose Mourinho – Portugal’s greatest ever manager.
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