Irankunda Finds His Footing at Sporting While Circati Bides His Time at Benfica

Two Australians, two Lisbon giants, and one question that matters more than the fees: are they actually playing? Three months into the 2026/27 season, the answers differ. Nestory Irankunda is starting to earn his place at Sporting. Alessandro Circati is still waiting for the door to open at Benfica.

Both arrived with big price tags. Irankunda joined the Lions from Watford for €15 million, and Circati moved from Parma to the Eagles for €18 million. Neither Sporting nor Benfica has had an Australian on its books before, and both clubs routinely fill their squads with foreign talent. Both players also impressed during Australia's World Cup campaign, which explains the interest. Fees like these usually mean a player had options.

Irankunda's slow start and sudden lift

Irankunda had to be patient. Sporting's squad is deep in wide areas, and the competition is fierce. Geny Catamo, Luís Guilherme, Flávio Gonçalves, Rodrigo Zalazar and Jesse Derry are all realistic options to play ahead of him. The Tanzania-born speedster spent the early weeks in cameo roles, playing between 10 and 23 minutes across four games and not appearing from the bench in three others.

Then the tactics shifted. After the October international break, coach Rui Borges reacted to poor results by switching from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3. That suited Irankunda far better. He produced two standout displays in tough away wins, against Braga in the league and Lens in the Champions League, and set up a goal for star striker Luis Suárez in each match. Suddenly the winger wasn't a bench option anymore. He was a reason the team was winning.

He then won a penalty early in Sporting's next Champions League game against LASK Linz, and things looked like they were finally turning. They didn't stay that way. Sporting lost that match, and a home defeat to Académico da Viseu in the league cost Borges his job. Within a week, Paulo Fonseca had replaced him.

That change was a real test. Irankunda had earned Borges's trust, and now he had to earn it again from a new manager. The prevailing expectation was that Fonseca would favour a more patient, possession-based approach over the quick vertical transitions that suit the winger best. If that proved true, Irankunda risked becoming collateral damage of the managerial change.

Fonseca didn't drop him. In his first match in charge, Irankunda started again, his seventh start in Sporting's last eight games, and played well. He came agonisingly close to his first Sporting goal against Moreirense. One shot was cleared off the line. Another well-struck effort hit the net but was ruled out for offside by the narrowest of margins, just 8cm.

Irankunda himself framed the adjustment after the LASK Linz game: "I'm working hard to be a starter for Sporting. I'm happy to be in the starting eleven. I'm working hard for this to happen. I've been playing well, but I think I can do better. The style of play is completely different to in England, where it's more aggressive and there are more long balls. It's a big difference but I'm happy to be at this huge club."

My rating: 7/10. Irankunda is lightning quick, but there's more to his game than pace. He reads the tactical shape well, he has adapted to a new league and to two different systems in a short space of time, and his work rate has been hard to fault. The next step is consistency under a manager whose preferences don't obviously suit him.

Circati has let no one down, but he hasn't been tested

Circati faces a different problem. Benfica's centre-back pecking order is crowded, though less so than Sporting's wide positions. Only two players stand between him and a regular spot in the pair at the heart of the defence. The obstacle is that Portugal international Tomás Araújo and French veteran Clément Lenglet form the first-choice partnership under manager Marco Silva.

That said, Benfica are competing on four fronts this season, and both Araújo and Lenglet have injury records that aren't spotless. Opportunities are going to come. Circati has already played 582 minutes for Benfica, more than Irankunda's 568, though most of that time has come in less important matches. Whatever the minutes say, he hasn't put a foot wrong.

Many Benfica supporters expected Circati to fix the club's vulnerability at set pieces and crosses. He brings height and physicality to the back four, but Silva hasn't judged that advantage strong enough to displace Araújo or Lenglet. Both are excellent on the ball, and for now they give Benfica's build-up more cohesion.

The clearest gap in Circati's game is in possession. He tends to play short, safe passes to his partner or to the midfielders dropping deeper, and he is less inclined to take on the progressive passing a Benfica centre-back is expected to provide. Silva says the two are working on it.

At 23, with an €18 million fee that is a lot of money for a Portuguese club, Circati was expected to play a large role. European and domestic trophies are the target, and he is supposed to be part of the plan to win them. Silva addressed the situation before Sunday's match against Estrela da Amadora:

"Circati has been evolving, adapting, and this takes time, because we're talking about a young player, although he has good experience in Italy's Serie A and plays an important role for his national team.

"He feels more comfortable without the ball at the moment.

"Playing for Benfica is completely different to playing with his national team, or playing at his previous club. In the majority of games, we are in possession of the ball in the attacking half of the pitch, and he has to make decisions constantly. This is all new to him and he's been taking the right steps. We're happy with him."

My rating: 6.5/10. Circati has done little wrong since arriving in Lisbon, but he hasn't been given many truly demanding assignments. He looks a touch short on confidence, which is understandable in a new country and a new system. A Benfica centre-back also has to help start attacks, and that hasn't been his job in his career so far.

Still, a regular starting role later in the season wouldn't be a shock. His strengths, height and aerial presence in particular, differ from those of Benfica's two first-choice centre-backs, and they could complement them once the defensive shape is settled. Silva has already named the areas he wants Circati to improve. The question is whether the next few months give him the minutes to show that work has paid off.