For Manchester City’s Rúben Dias, Leading Comes Naturally

Before Rúben Dias was a Premier League champion, he was a 14-year-old kid in need of a ride to training.

Dias had been invited to join the famed academy of Lisbon-based S.L. Benfica, Portugal’s most successful club. But he had to find a way to get there.

His grandfather, Joaquim Dias, offered to drive the journey of at least 30 minutes each way, five times a week.

“When you are about 14 you go to the main academy … it’s just you and the club. Your parents can’t be there. It’s when you go one vs one against yourself,” Dias, who plays for Manchester City, tells me in an exclusive interview.

“I was lucky enough to have a very devoted grandfather. Sometimes my father would take me but mostly it was my granddad that did all the dirty work.

“My granddad was a very humble person but still, to take all that time of his life to take care of me and help me every day, it was something very special for me.”

For as many as four or five hours each day, the elder Dias would wait. Sometimes, he could find a gap between the railings surrounding the training ground for a brief glimpse of his grandson playing.

“First of all, I can guarantee you he is very patient,” Dias says, laughing.

“I think he took some games, like Sudoku and games like that. I think the opportunity of being there and living the dream with me was also something that made a lot of sense to him.”

A Debut And A Change Of Position

Dias, 25, is one of the world’s best central defenders. He joined Manchester City from Benfica in a deal reportedly worth at least €68 million ($67m) in September, 2020.

In his first season, he won the Premier League title, EFL Cup and reached the final of the Champions League. He was named Premier League Player of the Season and, last August, signed a new contract until 2027.

Before he became an expert at stopping goals, however, Dias wanted to score them.

He was eight or nine when he debuted for his first club, C.F. Estrela da Amadora. Recruited by a school friend who spotted his talents in the playground, Dias started the match as a striker, ready to fire his new team to victory.

“I was the best player in my school, I was the best in that club and I just wanted to be up front and score goals, like every other kid,” Dias says.

“But then on my first game it just happened. My team was suffering a bit and I just ended up running everywhere. I was trying to speak with everyone, trying to organize it and make everyone run together.

“Then at some point the coach said, ‘Ruben, just go in the back and let’s go with it.’ And since then, I never left.

“I think it came naturally because I wanted to score goals, but I wanted to win more.”

That will to win grew from kickabouts with his brother, Ivan, who is also a professional soccer player, and father, Joao, in the parks of Amadora, on the outskirts of Lisbon.

There is no single moment that convinced Dias he could be a pro player. But the determination was always there.

“I think until a certain age you’re just playing for fun. You’re playing because you love to play,” he says.

“Unfortunately, these days some parents just push the kids to do it because they know what that life can bring you. But when you’re actually a natural, you just do it for the pleasure, because you love it.

“It was just a feeling of ‘I’ll do it. No matter what, I will sacrifice more. I will be ready to sleep more, ready to party less. I won’t be bothered with girlfriends, I won’t be bothered with making too many friends that might just distract me while I’m pursuing my dream.’

“Having the talent and having the right mindset together can make you unstoppable.”

Life Beyond Playing

As his career has progressed, Dias has tried to remain grounded. He has watched interviews with elite athletes from other sports who failed to invest during the boom times of their careers and retired without a financial safety net.

“Since I was very young, I’ve been very concerned about my future,” says Dias, whose mother, Bernadette, is an accountant and father, Joao, a real estate consultant.

“It was always being very aware that even though I’m doing great and now I have a world of possibilities, with the wrong decisions it can just go. And it can go quick.”

Guided by two trusted advisors, Dias has begun taking “small steps” to secure his post-playing financial future. He believes in having a diverse portfolio and is currently invested in real estate and the financial markets.

Part of the planning now is to be able to give back most effectively in the future. Dias mentions the Netflix series Inside Bill’s Brain, about the billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates. He is fascinated by “philanthropists and people that worry about the world and try to help” and has a particular interest in environmental sustainability.

“It’s a big thing for me to keep learning and listening. Since a very young age there are things that have inspired me,” he says.

“The planet needs people that want to take care of it. And obviously that’s a focus of mine. I am a person that has a certain visibility and I want to try to use it the best way possible.

“So it’s not only about guaranteeing my future. It’s also a lot about guaranteeing that I reach a certain level at which I will also be able to dedicate myself to these kinds of causes.”

It is not hard to imagine Dias becoming a leader off the field. Along with Kevin De Bruyne, he is part of the leadership group at Manchester City and tipped to take over the captaincy of Portugal when Cristiano Ronaldo retires.

Leadership, he says, is something that comes naturally.

“I believe that the right people to lead, they’re born with it. I’ve never tried to aim for anything else than being who I am.”

In his first season of professional soccer, Dias played for Benfica B, in the Portuguese second division. The club was almost relegated.

“There was a lot of pressure. But I think that’s also the moment you see someone with fiber. Someone with the will to win,” Dias, who was 18 at the time, says.

“Because it’s very easy to hide, it’s very easy to say, ‘Oh, why don’t they just call two or three or four players from the first team to help us?’ But I think that’s exactly the turning point in which you need to say ‘no, if we lose we might actually go down and we will be responsible for it. But still, let the pressure come and we’ll fight.’

“I think in my career that was a very important moment in terms of defining my personality.”

Since his debut match with C.F. Estrela da Amadora, Dias has had the instinct to organize his teammates. It hasn’t always been well received.

“When I arrived to the first team of Benfica, they didn’t like it much because I was very young!” he says.

“But then the beauty of it is that the people that didn’t like it were the same people that recognize now that it was who I was. I was not trying to show off, I was not trying to look smart, I was just being me.”

After three years, Dias transferred to Manchester City. Before he left Benfica, he was pulled aside by the club’s then captain, Luisão, and another of the squad’s leaders, André Almeida. They told Dias how proud they were that he was taking the next step in his career.

“It was special to hear that from them. When I joined the first team they were a little bit ‘what is this guy doing?’ But at the end they recognized it was me,” Dias says.

“These are the kinds of things that leave something. When you retire and you keep going with your life, these are the details that actually make everything have sense.”

‘Playing For Manchester City Is Intense, But It Needs To Be’

When Dias arrived in the English Premier League, he had to adapt quickly.

“The main difference (from the Liga Portugal) is how good it is, every game, every few days. In Portugal, you have big games but every once in a while,” Dias says.

“Here you play the Champions League and, I’ll be honest, sometimes it feels like an easier game than actually playing the Premier League.

“In the Premier League you play against the best in every game. It’s a good thing if you’re an ambitious player. If you come here to hide, you can’t. But if you come here with ambition to be great, to do great things for yourself and your club, then you’ve come to the right place.”

Dias has spoken of how “demanding” Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City manager, can be. It is something he embraces.

“It’s intense. And it depends a lot on your personality,” Dias says.

“Sometimes people don’t like it because you’re always being pushed. But at the level we play, it needs to be like this if you want to win like we’ve won and if you want to keep winning.

“It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, it just matters what you’re doing and what you’re going to do in the future. So you need to push yourself every single moment.”

Dias will need every bit of that motivation to navigate a busy end to the year. The Premier League and Champions League matches come thick and fast before the World Cup begins next month.

Dias was part of Portugal’s squad for the 2018 finals but didn’t make an appearance. This time he will be a key member of the first 11. What would it mean to win the World Cup?

“Obviously that’s probably the most special (trophy) to lift up,” Dias says.

“I’ve dreamed about it. But I try not to think about it too much. I try to think more about what will need to happen for it to happen.

“We have a very good team, we have very good players. But in the end, it’s about how those players can work together.”

Portugal doesn’t need to win the World Cup to make Joaquim Dias proud. For the 81-year-old, all those hours spent waiting for his grandson were worth it when Dias debuted for Benfica.

“He was the probably the happiest person in the room,” Dias says of his grandfather, a lifelong Benfica fan.

“Sometimes today when he goes to the hospital, he wears my shirt. He is very proud of what I’ve achieved.

“When I think about (what he did for me), I think one day I’ll be a granddad, if everything goes well. And for me to take that action with my grandson, it means a lot. It’s something that even now, I feel how much love he had for me to do it.”