Ex-Sporting player: Club hadn’t won in 18 years, so I joined | OneFootball

Before the duel between Sporting - awaiting the return of the forward - and PSG, which will count for the 7th round of the Champions League, Edmílson Pimenta recalls his time with the lions. The former forward of both clubs admitted that there were other options besides Alvalade. He was in Brazil negotiating with Flamengo, but also had Bordeaux on his heels and Porto itself was trying for his return, but the choice was different.

"I didn't think Porto was a bad idea, but Sporting had Carlos Manuel, whom I knew from Salgueiros, and the assistant Manuel Pedrosa, who was a very good friend of mine, so I chose Sporting. The club hadn't been champion for 18 years and I thought 'I'll go there'. It was a good choice," he recalls to 'zerozero'.

Alongside names like Peter Schmeichel, Beto Acosta, André Cruz, and Beto - "our pillars in that 1999/00 title," he said himself -, under the command of Augusto Inácio, but also Materazzi, an Italian whom Edmílson admits he misses.

"The club was very disorganized internally, but it started to organize itself and things went well. Sporting is a big team that has to be in the fight, it can't go 18 years without winning a title. I remember to this day the trip to Alvalade after we became champions, it was madness," recalls the Brazilian forward.

"Being a champion is good everywhere, but it's quite memorable to be a champion in that way. Sporting fans are very great and it was a beautiful gift for them. I really enjoyed being at Sporting," concluded the former Brazilian player of the lions.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.