09 | UNDERSTANDING LIGA 3

There is a point at which research has to give way to the work itself. I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to understand Atlético Clube de Portugal; its history, its neighbourhood, the people who have shaped it and the footballing culture into which it belongs. I’ve looked at the coaches who might influence Santi Bentancur, the journeys that connect Montevideo to Lisbon, and the clubs that exist beyond the familiar names at the top of Portuguese football. But there is one part of this project that I have yet to explore properly: the league in which Atlético must begin its journey.

Liga 3 is a relatively young competition, established in 2021 to sit between Liga Portugal 2 and the Campeonato de Portugal. Its creation was an attempt to provide a more structured, competitive environment for clubs operating below the professional second tier, giving ambitious sides a clearer route upwards while offering relegated clubs a chance to rebuild. It is a division caught between aspiration and uncertainty, where the next promotion can transform a club’s prospects, but where the resources needed to achieve it are not distributed equally.

The clubs arriving here have their own reasons for wanting to leave. For some, Liga 3 is a temporary interruption to a more ambitious history; for others, it represents the highest level they have reached and an opportunity to discover what might be possible. There are former second-tier clubs attempting to recover lost ground, established regional sides looking to sustain their progress, and smaller institutions for whom promotion would mean more than a change of division. They bring different expectations, different resources and different definitions of success, which makes the competition more complicated than a straightforward contest between the strongest squads.

The players are no less varied. Liga 3 is not simply a finishing school for teenagers, although the development of young Portuguese footballers is an important part of its appeal. It is also a place for players released by larger academies, professionals rebuilding their careers, loanees looking for senior experience and older footballers whose knowledge can be as valuable as their physical contribution. Some will see the division as a stepping stone; others may be trying to establish a career that has never quite followed the route they imagined. Their circumstances differ, but they share the same immediate requirement: to perform in senior football.

That is particularly interesting in Portugal, where the relationship between large academies and smaller clubs is fundamental to the development of the game. A player does not necessarily stop progressing because Benfica or Sporting decide he is not ready for their first team. He may need regular minutes, a different coaching environment or the chance to make mistakes without the scrutiny that comes with playing for a major institution. A smaller club cannot guarantee that he will fulfil his potential, but it can offer the conditions in which he might discover what that potential actually looks like. The same is true of players who have never been part of an elite academy; their route may be less obvious, but it is not necessarily less valuable.

For Atlético, this is where the idea of the Tallerbegins to take practical form. A workshop is not a place where every piece arrives finished, nor is it somewhere that every experiment succeeds. It is a place where people learn their craft, share knowledge, test ideas and improve through repetition. Santi’s background in sports science and community coaching should make him attentive to the different ways people develop, but the challenge of senior management will be learning to balance that patience with the demands of a competition in which results carry immediate consequences.

There is little point pretending that recruitment will be straightforward. Players who appear attractive on paper may be financially inaccessible, unwilling to join, or unsuitable for the football Santi wants to play. Others may possess qualities that are difficult to measure through statistics alone: an understanding of space, an ability to make good decisions under pressure, or the temperament to help a younger teammate through a difficult afternoon. Market values, appearances and performance data can help narrow the search, but they cannot replace judgement. If Atlético are to develop players rather than simply collect them, the process must begin with understanding what each individual needs and what the club can realistically provide.

That is the environment into which this project will begin, although I am conscious that research can only take me so far. I have not seen Atlético’s squad in Football Manager 27, assessed its finances, examined the available staff or watched a single match. I do not yet know whether promotion is a realistic ambition, whether the club has the foundations for a longer-term development project, or whether the first few weeks will expose problems that I have not anticipated. Those answers belong to the save itself, and I want to leave room for the game to surprise me.

For now, Liga 3 represents both the challenge and the opportunity. It is a competition in which ambition must be reconciled with limited resources, where development has to coexist with the pressure to win, and where a club’s future may depend on recognising possibilities that others have overlooked. Before Santi Bentancur can decide what Atlético should become, he must first understand the level at which the work begins