Tom Kundertreports
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
league16 times between1992 and
2013), which extended to success
in Europe, winning one Champions
League and two Europa Leagues in
thattime,wasfundamentallybuilt
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 andJoao 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 andJames
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
eye
witness
PORTUGALDragons rise again
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.Porto’s new emphasis on youth