He joined Benfica's first team at the age of 16 and quickly became one of the pretty boys on the Luz bench. Nothing changed later when he terminated his contract in 1999 and moved to Atletico Madrid.
“The initial idea was to continue at Benfica, but with better conditions. I had a four-year contract with another four years as options and I wanted more advantageous terms over the last four years.
Hugo Lille recalls that it was there that the conflict with the administration headed by João Valle Azevedo began: “I still get insulted in the street today because of the way I left Benfica. It's part of the club where people can't separate the professional from the man. Many don't know me, they don't even know if I'm nice, a good person or a bad person. Football has that.” Aspect of everything, it is proven, accepted and normalized.
In addition to Benfica and Atletico, he played for clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain, FC Porto or Braga and represented the national team at different levels, but it was as youth football director at Estoril Praia where he sought to overcome the more negative aspects. In football, you go through some things, look for a constructive process.
This experience can be read in the just-released book, “It's not just football, stupid”, written with journalist Felipe Mendonça, in which he shares names like Jorge Jesus or Ruben Amorim: “The idea of the title was to provoke and show this lower quality side of football and the way it can be improved through training.”He confesses.
It has been said of him many times that he had a brilliant career. Hugo Leal has the answer ready: “I would be more worried if I had a great life.”
“I don't watch any football matches and I don't know the names of many of the current players.”
In 2013, Hugo Leal, who was playing for Estoril Praia and was 33 years old, decided to end his career. Since then, he admitted he lost touch with football as a fan.
“Towards the end, I started to cling to the idea that I would have time for my family and all the weekends I was playing would be over. I think it's part of that moment. I stopped playing football to enjoy my career after my career, but then I also stopped having players from I took my time to watch them and later was unable to reconnect with the love of watching football.
Instead, he remembers watching entire paddle tennis matches: “It's not because I don't have time to watch football. My son makes fun of me because he likes to watch matches and makes up players' names to make me look ridiculous, but the truth is that I don't organize myself to watch football. No. There are world or European champions or finals, it's very rare.
“Ruben Amorim gives others 10 to 0 in terms of communication. He is a man that football is missing.”
Hugo Leal is a friend of Ruben Amorim and sees the current Sporting coach's journey with pride: “He gives others 10 to zero when it comes to communication. I talk about positive communication, about what I would like to see in football, about looking at ourselves, doing it for ourselves and not Putting poison into other people's operations.
Hugo Lille highlights Amorim's transparency as one of the most important factors: “If there are things you can't say with him, I don't understand what they are because he says almost everything he feels and in that way he includes the players and the fans.” And journalists do all this incredibly naturally. He is a man that football misses.”
“Jorge Jesus is the person I learned the most from in football, but I didn’t want to follow him in my early years.”
Hugo Lille was coached by Jorge Jesus at Belenenses, for a season, in a team that included Ruben Amorim. Of all the coaches who worked with him in football, he has no doubts about where he will place the current Al Hilal coach: “He was the person I learned the most from in football.”
Although he does not see himself in style, he admires Jesus' direct style.
“There are things that I would not do as a coach, that I would not imitate as the most brutal way of dealing. However, he is very committed to his role and he is a great communicator. When I talk about a communicator, it means that he knows very well how to convey the message about his game idea to the players.”
Compared to other coaches, Hugo Leal highlights the side of Jesus who “doesn’t leave anything for later”: “You face his truth and you know that this is what he thinks. He is not the person who is like a ‘mouse’, who says yes to everything with a smile.” Then, behind him, he asks you for another kind of situation. It's not like that.”
Despite the admiration, Hugo Leal says he would not like to be trained by Jorge Jesus any sooner.
“I don't think I could catch him in his early years, without manners, at that point where he's screaming and you can't defend yourself. Then, he probably wouldn't have done any good.” [risos]. But at the stage I was at in my career, I had never had a confrontation with Jorge Jesus. He knows very well who should not shout. He is smart in his management. I didn't have any negative episodes with him. “
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