He passed clubs such as Benfica, FC Porto, Belenenses, Vitória de Setúbal, Santa Clara or Academic and represented the national team, including the U-20 World Cup. After his career, he had a brief incursion in the real estate and did not foresaw return to football. But everything has changed with a SportTV invitation to comment back wages – a theme I knew well. The experience went well and the television became a serious way. After 17 years as a commentator at SportTV, he joined the Sic Notícias sports analysis team.
“At Benfica, I confronted a journalist who blamed me for a goal when I wasn’t even on the pitch”
During his career, he lived striking episodes. At Benfica, he confronted a journalist who blamed him for a goal conceded … when he wasn’t even on the pitch.
“It had already been replaced. I thought he was crazy or bad character.” After a while, he found him and approached him, “I asked if there was something against me. He replied, ‘No, I have a lot of admiration for himself.’ When they say that, it is usually a lie.
“At Benfica I saw Schwarz give Caesar Brito a Chapada. It was normal to have caught”
Destrictions in training are part of football. Who says it is Pedro Henriques, former defense of Benfica, who recalls a remarkable episode in ancient light.
“Swedish Schwarz once didn’t like an entrance to Hernâni and reacted. Then came Caesar Brito in defense of Hernâni and Schwarz immediately gave him a Chapada. Then he snapped the confusion,” says the former player. At the time, the squad had several nationalities. “The Russians, Yuran and Kulkov, were on the side of Schwarz. Others, on the side of Caesar Brito.”
The training was on the open door and the coach, Toni, was visibly bothered. “I do an open training and there is soon confusion,” recalls Pedro Henriques.
Nevertheless, it ensures that this kind of episodes did not affect the performance of the team. “These situations could happen, but when the game started we were all a real team.” The former player believes that these episodes are common and even revealing of competitiveness in the resort.
“Sometimes they tell me, ‘Oh, there was a training in which the players took themselves.’ This is normal. I saw the move several times lose your head with a colleague and Toni send it to the bath early, “he reveals naturally.
Pedro Henriques, now a commentator at SIC Notícias, recalls the backstage of a competitive Benfica, with strong personalities and intense training, but where, he says, “when it was serious, they were all together.”
“I went to sign through FC Porto and Pinto da Costa gave me a Benfica pillow to sit down”
In the 1996/97 time, after several seasons in Benfica’s first team, he terminated a contract so he can play more regularly and had the situation well referred with Portsmouth, from England. The business fell because FC Porto appeared. Pinto da Costa learned that Pedro Henriques was free and advanced. “I told me that I liked me a lot, because we had eliminated the port of the Portuguese Cup and I played well.”
Then the unusual episode. “It came to have me and gave me a cushion of those stadium… but from Benfica.” Not knowing how to react, he heard, “Take there, to sit your tail.” The president explained: “The supplier was mistaken and sent Benfica pillows. I didn’t pay them, but they serve the Malta to sit down.”
“Ronaldo and Messi who forgive me, but Maradona was the best ever”
Is it almost mandatory to ask someone who made a career as a left-back who was better? Madini or Roberto Carlos. Pedro Henriques has no doubt: “Roberto Carlos. Maldini was the best defense, but Roberto Carlos was one thing from the other world. He defended well and attacking was spectacular. Baxinho was a machine.
About the best player ever, for Pedro Henriques is a subject that also has no debate: “Maradona, there is no story. I was born in 1974 and we saw little of Maradona. And in his time, the defenses was cinnamon to the neck. Of course Ronaldo and Messi were for a long time, but forgive me.
