Adel Taarabt finally makes Benfica debut four years after joining | OneFootball

Adel Taarabt. Remember him?

It might surprise you to learn that the former Tottenham, QPR and Fulham trickster is still playing and he’s still only 29.

And on Saturday night, he came on as a substitute for Benfica – 1,387 days after signing for the club!

That’s right. The Moroccan midfielder moved to the Portuguese giants on a free transfer in the summer of 2015 but was loaned out to Genoa after failing to break into the first team.

Eighteen months, 29 appearances and just two goals later, he found himself back at Benfica but languishing in the club’s B team.

However, after impressing coach Bruno Lage in training, he was finally given his first-team bow when he came on as a 71st minute substitute in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Tondela.

“He is 29 years old, he had a brilliant career but he lost a lot of time,” Lage told reporters after the game.

“It’s his responsibility to get back on track and he knows it. When we examined who could come with us [to the Tondela game] we thought we had to give him a chance.

“By then, it depended on him. He won a match with the B team. To get into the Benfica team is very simple; you have to train at 1,000 per cent.”

Let this be a lesson to all of us. It’s never too late if you put your mind to it.