FC Porto - Prisoners of their own success

Jose ‘The Special One’ Mourinho wasn’t nearly as special when he took over as FC Porto’s manager in 2002. One of the big 3 Portuguese teams; Porto was, and still is, the most successful Portuguese club in history. It was one of the founding members of the Portuguese 1^st Division and has the distinction of never being relegated from the top flight.

One could argue that Porto over-achieved under Mourinho, and whether that’s down to Mourinho’s own tactical acumen and man-management skills or the talents of the young (predominantly Portuguese) team is debatable. Nevertheless, they won the UEFA Cup in 2003 and subsequently, reached the pinnacle of European club football in 2004 on a famous night in Gelsenkirchen, masterminded by the Portuguese playmaker Deco. They beat the likes of Manchester United on the way to the title courtesy of a last minute away goal. (How can any football fan forget Mourinho famously running down the Old Trafford touchline following Costinha’s last-minute winner?)

FC Porto – 2004 Champions League Winners

Porto were thus the toast of Europe. 2 European trophies in 2 years. An exciting young team. Unbeaten at home in the league for 2 years. A manager who could do no wrong.

Perhaps the club became the victim of their own fame and adulation. From the peak of being UCL winners, it all went downhill. Mourinho was lured away to Stamford Bridge with the promise of millions to shape the Chelsea team his own way. With him went half the team that had started that Champions League final. Others also didn’t stay much longer. By 2005, everyone who had started that game had left the club, except keeper Vitor Baia. Porto had become a selling club, scouting new Portuguese and South American talent and outsourcing them to the bigger clubs and the bigger leagues in Europe.

That trend, sadly, still continues.

4 coaches came and went in the 2 years following Mourinho’s departure. They won the league in 2006 but failed to even make it out of the group stages of the Champions League.

An interesting fact is that, the team built to replace the UCL winners of 2004 was equally talented, if not more. The 2006 team possessed the likes of Pepe, Diego, Anderson and Raul Meireles. The club cashed in on these talents too for substantial transfer fees and recruited further talent from either its own academy or from South American clubs.

2006-2010 was a period of stability under Jesualdo Ferriera. They won the league thrice and made a Quarterfinal appearance in the Champions League. Further talents were nurtured, the likes of Hulk and Lisandro Lopez.

2009 saw the arrival of Columbian striker Radamel Falcao, who would go on to light up the newly-christened Europa League.

FC Porto would also prove to be the stepping stone of Andre Villas-Boas, who at 34 years of age, became the youngest manager to lift the European trophy. His tactical acumen and preference to play a fluid, attacking system garnered much praise. He would subsequently move on to Chelsea, where he was to enjoy an unsuccessful stint. Maybe the move to a club of Chelsea’s stature came too early for him.

His successful team had a unique South American flavour to it with players like Brazilian Hulk, Columbians Falcao and Fredy Guarin and Uruguayan full-backs Jorge Fucile and Alvaro Perreira.

Hulk and Falcao

History was to repeat itself. Like Jose Mourinho and his European champions, the team was broken up that very year. Villas-Boas moved on to manage Chelsea, Falcao accepted a big money move to Atletico Madrid (where he would go on to win the Europa League again) , Fucile went back to South America with Santos and Guarin went on-loan to Inter, with an option of a permanent signing. Reports indicate a very strong possibility of Hulk moving on to Chelsea this end-season.

We can clearly make out a trend here. Despite being Portugal’s most successful club and being regular competitors in the Champions League, Porto has largely remained a selling club. With their strong South American scouting network and decent academy structure, they have preferred to outsource talent rather than build a nucleus of a team, under a coach with a long term vision for the club, to dominate domestically and be a force to reckon with in Europe.

Now, there can be 2 reasons for such a policy. One, the club realizes that despite its domestic dominance, it doesn’t have the capability to put up a good fight in Europe. That doesn’t look like a good argument at all, as the club has a dedicated legion of fans who flock to every home game and are successful in making the Estadio Do Dragao a cauldron at every home game. It has one of the most beautiful stadiums in Portugal and boasts of healthy infrastructure. It also doesn’t have any major debt issues and the club is run very professionally.

Two is the players’ own tendency to seek greener pastures elsewhere, realizing that the domestic league isn’t the strongest or the most competitive in Europe. Thus, we regularly have witnessed ex-Porto players enjoying successful careers in England and Spain.

Thus, due to intense transfer activity out of FC Porto these past 10 years, the club is said to have received about $850million worth of transfer fees. There have been no marquee signings made by the club, and so most of this money has gone into the youth and scouting system of the club.

Yes, it is desirable for any club to have a strong youth and scouting system, but it shouldn’t be at the cost of the first team. The club authorities, of course, aren’t entirely at fault here. Producing such super-talented players from time to time, the club is perhaps the victim of its own fame.