Benfica members have elected former Portuguese international Rui Costa president to replace Luis Filipe Vieira who was arrested in July.
The club said on Saturday that Costa, 49, comfortably won the election for a four-year term, collecting 84.48 per cent of the votes against 12.24 per cent for his opponent, Francisco Benitez. The club said that slightly more than 40,000 of its members voted, a record turnout. Costa, who is from Lisbon, was an attacking midfielder who started and ended his playing career with Benfica. In between, he spent seven seasons at Fiorentina and five at AC Milan. He played 94 times for Portugal.
