This article contains adult content that may be inappropriate for minors. Please confirm that you are 18 years or older to continue. This article contains images or details that some readers may find disturbing. Reader discretion is advised. The club that Eduardo Toto Salvio represented for the longest time in his professional career was Benfica, where he was from 2012/13 to 2018/19, in addition to a loan season in 2010/11 from Atlético Madrid. However, despite so many years in Portugal, Salvio compared the day-to-day life at Benfica to that of Boca Juniors, the club he joined after leaving the Eagles in the summer of 2019, and the answer is curious. "At Boca, you are either 'up there' or 'down there.' And when I arrived, I was still being called up for the national team; Scaloni continued to call me. But, well, when the less good moment came, I felt that. It was compounded by a personal problem and affected me a lot," he said in an interview with the You Tube channel Clank!, recalling the moment he suffered a serious injury at Boca. "Whenever I got the ball, I didn't feel the same confidence I had before. At another time, I would get the ball and… I felt I could do whatever I wanted, that… I felt it would go well, that I had that security, and I started losing that. And, in the end, they gave me a pass. I advanced two, three meters, without pressure, with no one around. And I took a step to the left and ended up injuring my cruciate ligament on my own. Incredible," he remarked. "Even at that time, I associated that with the bad moment I was going through. And I can tell you, Benfica is huge, huge, huge, but… no, no, no, it's not lived the same way. At Boca, it's totally different. At that moment, I didn't want to leave. I was lucky to wear that jersey, to wear the number 10 for Boca at that time. But I also think that personal decision ends up counting. And I think, in the end, I made the best decision [to leave]," he explained. The Argentine also recalled the shock he felt when he arrived at Atlético Madrid at just 19 years old. The winger, who was transferred from Lanús at the time, admitted that his eating habits were far from ideal for a high-performance athlete. Salvio revealed that upon arriving in Spain, the club's nutritionist informed him that he needed to lose four kilos. A requirement that, at the time, the player considered unnecessary, as he believed his speed on the field was sufficient. "When I went to Atlético Madrid, I was 19 years old and ate very poorly, that's the truth. I didn't have the information I have today about what is right and what is wrong," confessed the player, who currently represents Lanús again. "I lived on cookies, Coca-Cola, and pasta every day. Today, I am practically the opposite. The nutritionist told me I had to lose four kilos. And I told him: 'How am I going to lose four kilos if at Lanús I run everywhere?'" Salvio explained that he had never had weight problems at his previous club and felt good physically. However, the environment he found in the Atlético locker room, shared with figures like Forlán, Aguero, and Simão Sabrosa, was decisive for his change in mentality. "As soon as I arrived at Atlético Madrid, I saw Forlán, who didn't have a gram of fat and arrived two hours early for training, Kun, Simão… and I told myself that I wanted to stay there. I started changing my habits. Thank God, I managed to stay 10 years in Europe," he concluded.
Benfica Eduardo Toto Salvio remains central to this story.
Benfica Eduardo Toto Salvio remains central to this story.
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