Lindelöf left Västerås SK for Benfica in the summer of 2012, just before turning 18, and began in the club's B team before making his first-team debut in his second season there.
It was only in his third season that he earned a regular chance and made it his own, going on to make 73 competitive appearances before Manchester United signed him in the summer of 2017.
Benfica's academy director, Bruno Maruta, told O Jogo that the Swede's early struggles made his eventual breakthrough one of the most surprising success stories to come out of the club's youth system: "He arrived here still a junior, with abilities, mainly physical ones.
"He had difficulty adapting and moved between different positions. It was a process in which our expectations of him were low."
Maruta said the club treated Lindelöf no differently from any other prospect, and that it was his attitude that set him apart.
"We didn't give him anything more than the conditions we offered others. Through his attitude and work ethic, he earned his chance. He was one of the first to arrive at training and one of the last to leave it. He showed enormous development, driven more by that attitude than by pure talent."
Lindelöf made 284 competitive appearances for Manchester United, scoring four goals and providing seven assists, before leaving as a free agent for Aston Villa in the summer of 2025 after eight years at Old Trafford. Now 32, he has made 35 appearances for Villa, and has scored three goals in 80 caps for Sweden.