Buta says Brazil ‘always drew him in’ and he wants to play full-back

São Paulo officially presented Portuguese right-back Aurélio Buta this Friday (24) at the Barra Funda training center.

The player signed a contract until the end of June 2027, with an automatic one-year extension clause tied to the achievement of individual performance targets.

Although he can play multiple roles on the field, such as center-back in a three-man defense or as a winger, Buta emphasized that his tactical priority is at full-back.

“The position I play in and feel best in is right-back. I was developed as a winger, but my entire professional career has been at right-back. It’s the position where I feel most comfortable,” explained the new signing.

Developed in Benfica’s youth academy, the player had spells at Royal Antwerp (Belgium), Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany), Reims (France), and FC Copenhagen (Denmark) before joining Tricolor. When asked why he chose Brazilian football, he did not hesitate to say that he had always wanted to play here.

“When the agents and Rafinha spoke to me about coming to São Paulo, it was an easy decision. Because it’s a huge club. I liked this challenge. It’s a new country, a completely different change from Europe, but I like big challenges. I used to follow Brazilian football from time to time in Portugal, and it always caught my attention. It’s a very aggressive style of football, with many players who can dribble and have technical quality. And that was one of the factors that weighed in my decision to come here. It’s a kind of football that attracts me, and I really liked it,” he said.

The deal included direct mediation from executive director Rafinha, who sought information from German midfielder Mario Götze — scorer of Germany’s title-winning goal at the 2014 World Cup and Buta’s former teammate at Frankfurt. The Portuguese player commented on his colleague’s recommendation:

“We played together at Frankfurt. He always helped me (…) I believe he must have given good references. I understood him well on the pitch, so I think with players like him it’s easy to play,” he said.

Registered in time in the BID before the formalization of FIFA’s transfer ban, Aurélio Buta is already part of the squad managed by Dorival Júnior and is expected to be included in the delegation traveling to Rio de Janeiro (RJ) for this Sunday’s (26) match against Flamengo, at 6:30 p.m. (Brasília time), at the Maracanã, in the Brazilian Championship.