Petar Musa reflects on his happy Portugal years | OneFootball

Croatian striker Petar Musa is enjoying life as a star player in the MLS for FC Dallas. The 26-year-old has been talking about his career trajectory and his time in the Primeira Liga.

Musa says he loved his time in Portugal, from day one at Boavista. “I felt like I belonged there. The people there are really nice, the food is also really nice… the whole environment around me at Boavista was perfect, on and off the pitch.”

Musa’s eye-catching performances for the Porto-based club and impressive stats earned him a move to Benfica, where he continued to shine, albeit facing fierce competition for a place in Roger Schmidt’s XI. “I wasn’t unhappy at Benfica. I was just looking for a club where I could play more,” he reflects. Zach Lowy reports.

The “Petar Musa derby”

Benfica continued their scintillating run of form on Saturday, thrashing Boavista 3-0 at the Estádio da Luz. January recruit Andrea Belotti opened the scoring within a half-hour, Vangelis Pavlidis doubled the scoring in the 70th minute, whilst Orkun Kökçü sealed the deal from the penalty spot shortly after. With a whopping 31 shots, 10 big chances and 5.44 Expected Goals, Benfica could very well have mounted an even more lopsided victory had it not been for the assured display of Boavista’s January arrival Tomáš Vaclík between the sticks.

It was a match that confirmed the realities of both clubs. Benfica and Boavista are two of only five teams to win the Portuguese top-flight…and that’s about where the similarities end. Benfica have won six games in a row, with the exception of a 3-3 draw versus Monaco which confirmed their spot in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16. Bruno Lage’s side sit joint first in the Liga Portugal table, and they are currently chasing a treble. They will face Braga in the Taça de Portugal quarterfinal tomorrow before taking on Barcelona in the next round of the Champions League.

As for Boavista, they sit bottom of the table with 12 points from 23 matches, and they find themselves eight points away from safety. The Axadrezados have not won a single match since 2 November, they have lost each of their last eight matches, and to add insult to injury, they will be without Miguel Reisinho for their upcoming match against Santa Clara after his sending-off in Lisbon.

When Benfica play Sporting, Portuguese journalists and fans refer to this match as the ‘Dérbi de Lisboa.’ When Benfica play Porto, it’s known as ‘O Clássico.’ And when Porto face off against Boavista, it’s known as the ‘Dérbi da Invicta.’ But what about Benfica vs. Boavista? That may as well be known as the ‘Dérbi da Petar Musa.’

From the Czech Republic to the chequered shirt

Musa joined Boavista in 2021 on loan from Slavia Prague, quickly settling into life in Iberia with a 92nd-minute equalizer on his debut vs. Portimonense. Having struggled in his previous loan spell at Union Berlin, he took Liga Portugal by storm with an astonishing 12 goals and 4 assists, steering them to a 12th-place finish. His stellar performances caught the eye of Benfica, who signed the Croatian striker to a five-year contract. Boavista triggered Musa’s €3.5 million buyout option before selling him to Benfica for €5 million, in addition to also receiving half of Ricardo Mangas’ economic rights and acquiring half of Ilija Vukotić’s economic rights for €500,000.

Despite remaining as Benfica’s second-choice centre-forward to Gonçalo Ramos, Musa nevertheless continued his upward momentum and even earned his international debut for Croatia. He racked up 11 goals and 3 assists in all competitions and finished with the best scoring frequency in Liga Portugal (one goal per 97 minutes) as Benfica claimed their first championship in four years. Musa picked up where he left off under Roger Schmidt by scoring four goals in his first six matches, including a goal to lead Benfica to victory in the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira versus Porto, but he never quite managed to fill Ramos’ void in attack and establish himself as their first-choice striker. Rather than stick it out, Musa decided to head across the Atlantic Ocean in the January 2024 window and join MLS side FC Dallas, where he has quickly emerged as a key figure in attack.

Musa spoke about various topics in an RG interview, including:

Making the transition from the Bundesliga to Liga Portugal

“I was really young when I went to Germany. I needed time to adapt, and I couldn’t show my full potential there. I then moved to Portugal, another country that loves football and that is a factory of talent. From my first day in Portugal, I saw that they liked to play with the ball and that there wasn’t so much running off the ball, which was different. I felt like I belonged there, and it was a good season for me. The people there are really nice, the food is also really nice, and I also had another Balkan teammate (Ilija Vukotić), who spoke my language and helped me a lot. The whole environment around me at Boavista was perfect, on and off the pitch. It was easy for me to feel good, and if you feel good off the field, you will feel even better on the field. Everything was really nice, and I really enjoyed my time in Portugal.”

Staying confident at Benfica despite being a backup

“I’m a really tough guy who always has confidence in himself. It’s in the Croatian culture, we are very proud people. Even if something is not going well, you stay proud and confident, so I never had problems with confidence. Obviously, if you’re playing well and doing a good job on the pitch, you become even more confident and it’s easier to score goals. When you have a good role in the team, it makes you think calmly so that even if you mess up, there’s always the next action. You need to be focused on the next stage and forget as quickly as possible what happened.”

Relationship with Roger Schmidt

“It was not an easy situation for me because Ramos was having an amazing season and scoring so many goals. Schmidt decided to play him instead of me and there was nothing I could do about that, I just had to keep working harder to try to convince him to put me in the starting eleven. I was not playing regularly, but I was working really hard and staying patient, and whenever I’d jump into the match, I’d often score. That makes me very happy because hard work always pays off. I was training really hard to get my opportunity and grasp it with both hands. I was always waiting for my opportunity and at the end of the season, we lifted the trophy altogether as a team, which was the most important thing.”

Leaving Benfica for Dallas

“I reached that stage in my career where I wanted to go to a team where I could have some consistency and feel the trust of the coach even more. I wanted to play as much as possible and have a good season, I wasn’t unhappy at Benfica, I was just looking for a club where I could play more. That’s why I made the decision to go to Dallas. I was talking to Dallas’ coach and owner, who explained their entire project to me and left me very impressed. We didn’t have a great season as a team, but individually, I had a very good year. After my last season, I’ve shown everyone who doubted me leaving Benfica for MLS that it was the right move. I haven’t regretted it one bit.”