The Portugal Connection got in touch with esteemed Swedish Football journalist Rasmus Arvidsson, an expert on the European game. Here’s what he had to say about Portuguese football:
Next season you will probably sit down in front of the television and watch Champions League games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Champions League games involving Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Manchester United (without Alex Ferguson) and… Pacos Ferreira. What!? Pacos, Who!? Ferreira, where?! Well, simply a team from the Porto district in Portugal with an average attendance this season of around 1,500 and a stadium (even if they unfortunately probably wont play their Champions League fixtures there) with a capacity of 5,000. As a club run in an exemplary manner, Ferreira has managed to break into the top of the Portuguese league against all odds.
Ferreira’s story about being well run and responsible in financial aspects – despite the country as a whole’s financial situation – is also one found in many other Portuguese clubs. Porto for example, the only team in recent years, who has made it all the way in Europe’s finest competition as underdogs, is run in the same responsible manner but on a larger scale. Alongside these fairy tales, we also have a Portuguese team in the Europa League final this season and players from the Portuguese league who season after season become key players at the dominating clubs in Europe.
Despite being a country of only 10 million inhabitants, Portuguese football is stronger than it has been for many years. So what possible explanations can we then find for this in a climate of European football where oligarchs or sheiks or American businessmen are buying and pumping in billions of pounds into their football clubs (and not even that is a guarantee for success, just ask Manchester City or Chelsea).
If you ask me, a man who comes from Sweden, a country comparable to Portugal in terms of inhabitants, of course I envy them dearly from a footballing aspect (even if our state finances are a bit more stable) and it would be easy to just be amazed and puzzled to see both the Swedish domestic league and national team this far behind Portugal. But finances is the exact thing that explains the success if you ask me. The financial situation in Portuguese football is the biggest reason for why the league is doing so well and has now surpassed the French League in UEFA’s ranking – and actually could even pass the Italians as well when we sum this season up.
So how can the Portuguese football league’s situation be so completely opposite to the country’s as a whole? Well, the biggest reason if I should look at one is that Portugal, compared to the rest of Europe, has a shortcut to a South American and Brazilian talent factory in particular, that is the best in the world. This shortcut is both due to a close connection geographically but also culturally and linguistically. Furthermore, this shortcut is very well used and taken advantage of, especially from Porto who, to mention one of many examples, found and then sold the Colombian striker Falcao only to then just go back to where they found him and buy some new a replacement for a fraction of the cost.
Obviously the Portuguese clubs probably have the best scouting operation in the world, but we shouldn’t forget that those clubs and scouts then are helped a great deal by the reasons I pointed out above. Talented players can immediately adapt to a similar mentality, style of playing and cultural settings that they are used to. The young players who move thousands of miles from home and leave their families feel comfortable and settled pretty much straight away (which is not at all the case with every South American who tries their luck in England, Germany or Italy).
Clubs in Portugal are great both at buying players but even more so at selling them to Russia, Spain or England, for much bigger money than they spent on them in the first place. Remember apart from the financial point that, the players are being sold three or four years after having consistently performed on the pitch as well. Interestingly we can look at the club that hasn’t chosen to go down the South American route in terms of transfers, Sporting Lisboa. Sporting is a traditionally major club that has fallen way behind clubs that has looked at South America and Brazil. Replacing Sporting at the top, both domestically but also in Europe, we find Braga, a traditionally smaller club but that has bought…. South American and Brazilian players predominantly.
Obviously we can’t close our eyes to the obvious fact that the country down in the south of the Iberian region has a great tradition on their own of producing and developing great footballers at almost every position, which we have seen effects of with the national team’s relatively great success for the past decade. The only obstacle that has prevented them from going all the way in the big tournaments is probably that they never seem to be able to produce a traditional top class striker. But then again – why would they when there always is a Falcao or two to buy from Argentina or Brazil?
Rasmus Arvidsson is a freelance sports journalist and runner of the podcast Life Offside. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
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