FC Porto bring back Cardoso Varela from Dinamo Zagreb after agent switch | OneFootball

Back to square one. Cardoso Varela is very close to returning to FC Porto, two years after leaving the club to join Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia, in a move shaped by the controversies surrounding Andy Bara, the former agent of the 17-year-old winger. The Croatian press reported the news this Wednesday.

According to Sportske Novosti, the player who came through Porto’s academy trained this morning with the Croatian club’s B team and, after that session, his return to Portugal was finalized.

The transfer will be completed without any financial compensation, meaning FC Porto will secure the player on a free transfer. Dinamo Zagreb, however, will retain 50% of the rights related to any future sale of the young Portuguese international.

The process began to move forward after Cardoso Varela ended his relationship with Andy Bara as his sports agent. The businessman had been involved in controversy after FC Porto president André Villas-Boas accused him of “illegitimate practices involving underage players.”

Pini Zahavi, the forward’s new representative, immediately began looking for a solution that would allow him to leave Dinamo Zagreb and give fresh momentum to a career that may still recover after a less successful spell.

When he arrived at the Croatian club, Cardoso Varela was compared to Dani Olmo and generated great expectations, especially as he was only 15 years old when he signed the contract. However, over the course of two seasons, he made just 29 appearances for the club’s various teams, with two goals and three assists—numbers that led Dinamo to question his performances, despite his age.

It now remains to be decided which level Cardoso Varela will play at for FC Porto. The winger could join the under-19s or even the first team, a scenario that would not be surprising given that he already has experience in European football: he played eight Europa League matches and scored one goal in 190 minutes.

The most likely option, however, is that he will start with Porto’s B team, with possible call-ups to the side coached by Francesco Farioli. The young forward’s quality is widely recognized, as he showed while representing Portugal’s under-17 team that reached the final of the 2024 European Championship, lost to Italy, where he was one of the most dangerous players in the Portuguese attack.

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