Shock league leaders in Portugal – with help from Jorge Mendes
Famalicao
I
t is early days in the Primeira
Liga but already the story of the
Portuguese season is shaping
up to be Famalicao, the newly
promoted club whose victory
away to Sporting in Lisbon
confirmed their position at
the top of the table after six matches.
The club from the small town of
Vila Nova de Famalicao, near Braga in
northern Portugal, are back in the top
flight for the first time for 25 years. They
had previously spent six seasons in the
Primeira Liga, the most recent season
being 1993-94, after which they dropped
down the divisions, falling as low as the
regional fifth tier in 2008-09.
With a stadium holding just 5,300 it
would be easy to portray Famalicao as an
all-too-rare fairytale in a modern game
tarnished by money and greed. But, on
closer inspection, all is not what it seems.
As with so much of Portuguese
football these days, the hand of agent
Jorge Mendes is never far away. Many of
the players who joined Famalicao thissummer are either clients of Mendes’
Gestifute agency or have played for
clubs with strong links to Mendes.
The turning point in Famalicao’s recent
fortunes was the 2018 takeover of the
club by the Quantum Pacific Group
(QPG), fronted by Israeli billionaire Idan
Ofer, who also owns a significant stake in
Atletico Madrid, who paid an eyebrow-
raising fee of €125million for Mendes
client Joao Felix this summer, a deal
that made the teenager the fifth-most
expensive player of all time.
QPG’s arrival on the scene facilitated
the arrival of 18 new players in the
summer of 2018 and enabled Famalicao
to pursue a successful promotion from
the second tier. During that campaign,
coach Sergio Vieira was replaced by
ex-Santa Clara and Academica boss
Carlos Pinto, but the promotion did not
earn Pinto a new contract. Instead, the
club turned to Joao Pedro Sousa, the
long-time former assistant to Marco
Silva at Greek side Olympiakos, and Hull
City, Watford and Everton in England.
This season brought
a further churn of
players, with 19 new
names added to theFamalicao roster. Following a pattern
similar to that of Wolverhampton
Wanderers, many of the new arrivals
were promising youngsters from
established Portuguese and Spanish
clubs with close ties to Gestifute.
The most eye-catching deal was the
loan signing of Portugal under-21 winger
Diogo Goncalves who arrived – along
with another Mendes client, attacking
midfielder Guga – from Benfica.
Uruguayan pair Nehuen Perez and
Nicolas Schiappacasse were loaned from
Atletico Madrid, while Wolves sent
defender Roderick Miranda and
concluded a permanent deal for
midfielder Pedro Goncalves.
Other signings include 19-year-old
defensive midfielder Gustavo Assuncao,
from Atletico Madrid, England under-20
left-back Josh Tymon – who worked with
Sousa at Hull – on loan from Stoke City,
and former Tottenham Hotspur trainee
Ruben Lameiras from Plymouth Argyle.
The 2-1 victory over Sporting alerted
the wider world to the Famalicao story.
They have yet to face Benfica or Porto,
but the early signs are that something is
stirring in northern Portugal.
Gavin HamiltonHeadliners
Agent...Jorge MendesUpset...celebrating
a goal at SportingMany of the players who joined
Famalicao this summer are either
clients of Mendes’ Gestifute
agency or have played for clubs
with strong links to Mendes