Portugal
Porto’s new emphasis on youth
Porto are back on top. After dominating Portuguese football for decades, their hegemony seemed to have been wrested away by Benfica, who reeled off four straight championship triumphs from 2013 to 2017. But the appointment of fiery former winger Sergio Conceicao as head coach has proven a wise decision. Porto were at the summit of the league when it was interrupted, and they stayed there when football resumed, clinching a second title win in three years.
This one, however, feels like the beginning of something different.
Porto’s domestic supremacy in Portugal (the Dragons won the league 16 times between 1992 and 2013), which extended to success in Europe, winning one Champions League and two Europa Leagues in that time, was fundamentally built on brilliant scouting.
Porto made a habit of enticing talented players squandered by their biggest rivals, who would then excel at the Estadio do Dragao, such as Maniche, Deco and Joao Moutinho. But the biggest difference-maker, especially in international competition, was the club’s ability to identify emerging talent from South America, develop it and reap the rewards both on the pitch and subsequently in the transfer market. Radamel Falcao, Hulk and James Rodriguez are just three from a lengthy list of players who gave magnificent service to the Blue and Whites on the pitch, and who subsequently boosted the club’s coffers by generating huge fees when sold on.
The formula was so well implemented that former football director Antero Henrique kept a meticulously elaborated “shadow team” document of two targets for every position on the pitch from all around the world, ready to be purchased in anticipation of the latest star being transferred for a huge profit.
Unfortunately for Porto, others caught on. The ever-increasing wealth of Europe’s major leagues enabled richer clubs to set up complex global scouting networks and make irresistible offers for the football stars of tomorrow. When UEFA outlawed third-party ownership, a system routinely used by Porto, the Portuguese side definitively could not compete for the best young South Americans and the scout-buy-develop-sell model that had served them so well was largely defunct.
How did Porto respond? In the same way that all of Portugal’s major clubs did. By investing heavily in their youth training structure. If you cannot buy top talents, you must create them yourself.
The efforts made in this area have borne fruits. Ruben Neves, Andre Silva and Diogo Dalot were sold for a combined total of almost €80 million. The club’s financial difficulties – which included falling foul of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play policy, leading to a ban on buying players – necessitated the sale of the aforementioned trio before they were able to leave a lasting mark on Porto’s senior team.
Today, the hope among Porto fans is that homegrown stars will play a big role in the first team. The evidence from the latest league conquest has raised those hopes further. Porto became the first Portuguese team to win the UEFA Youth League in 2018-19, and eight of the players from that side helped them lift the title this year.
Since the turn of the millennium, Porto can lay undisputed claim to the crown of the most successful club in European competition outside the continent’s four richest leagues, adorning their trophy cabinet with an array of international silverware that is the envy of all but the so-called super-clubs, and which even betters some of those. The dream now is that the new iterations of Porto can emulate the success of the exceptional teams of the recent past, only this time not with footballers bought from far-off lands, but with local talent nurtured in-house.
PORTO’S PEARLS
It may have been the most untypical of seasons owing to the coronavirus pandemic, but 2019-20 will forever be etched in the memory of eight young players who were given their professional bow in top-level football and ended the season with a championship medal around their necks.
Curiously, the highest hopes for making it big are reserved for two players who have featured less than many were expecting this season. Centre-back Diogo Leite is a regular Portugal Under-21 international. Porto stalwart Pepe knows a thing or two about making a success of that position, and he has no doubts about the quality of his young defensive partner.
“In my opinion, Leite is the best central defender in Portugal,” says the former Real Madrid man. “I see a very rosy future for him. Provided he remains focused and humble and continues to assimilate everything transmitted to him by the older players and the coach, he will become a reference point at our club and even for Portugal. He’s a centre-back with rare qualities: a superb left foot, fast, strong, very good at bringing the ball out, and he reads the game well.”
Exciting attacking right-back Tomas Esteves is another name that has created a buzz in the world of youth football. On the back of his burgeoning reputation, for several months it seemed Porto would lose him as negotiations to extend his contract dragged on, but in June he signed on the dotted line, with Porto president Pinto da Costa announcing the deal himself. “Lots of people have been asking us to renew his contract, but that’s not the reason we renewed it. We renewed it because the coach told me he has big expectations of Esteves, he has a lot of quality and enormous potential. Given his passion for football and for our club, everything is in place for things to go well.”
Romario Baro is a combative and technically-gifted holding midfielder who started the season strongly, until injuries halted his progress. The Guinea-Bissau born player has reportedly attracted interest from Juventus and Real Madrid.
Darting striker Fabio Silva became Porto’s youngest debutant in a league match when he came on as a substitute in the opening match of the season against Gil Vicente, three weeks after his 17th birthday. As the campaign progressed, he subsequently became the youngestever starter and the youngest-ever scorer for the Dragons.
Fabio Vieira took his bow after the resumption of football and made an immediate impact. The 226 minutes granted to the stylish midfielder over eight matches were enough for him to score two goals and add an assist.
Goalkeeper Diogo Costa, midfielder Vitor Ferreira and winger Joao Mario have all had limited opportunities so far. However, none of the trio looked overawed when given the chance to turn out for the first team, and with all three shining brightly for Portugal’s youth teams over a number of years, they will be knocking on the door of the first team next season.
CONCEICAO’S SOFTLY-SOFTLY APPROACH
While utilising the fledgling players at his disposal regularly throughout their title-winning season, Porto coach Sergio Conceicao has been happy to drip-feed them into the first team, and has even made a point of pouring cold water on the lofty expectations of the fans and media who are hungry to see the local kids make good.
“Porto are in great shape in terms of young players that can contribute to the senior team. But this question of youth players seems to be in fashion. It’s almost as if I have to play them because they came through the academy, and that’s not right. That is not how I think. I don’t care if a player is 17 years old or 35 years old. What’s important is the quality they show and the effort they make in training.
“Only by watching the players in training every day can the coach pick the best team for any given match.
I don’t want to give players more chances just because they came through the academy. I’ll never do that, because we’re talking about a professional squad of players and everybody has to work hard to earn their place, then it’s up to me to choose.
“But there are youngsters working with us who are ready. I see youth players with a lot of quality. Now it’s a question of adding a competitive mentality, and that doesn’t come overnight. I think in this respect, these youngsters are a little lacking compared to what happened in the past. On the other hand, they have some positive qualities that give them an edge over young players from my playing days.
“It’s a question of finding the right balance to launch the careers of these players not because of what their parents want, what their agents want, or what the fans want, but in accordance with what the team needs.”
“I don’t care if a player is 17 years old or 35 years old. What’s important is the quality they show and the effort they make in training” Porto head coach, Sergio Conceicao