Villas-Boas on under-19 champions: “This is a golden generation” | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas received, in the early afternoon of this Wednesday, at the FC Porto Museum, the national champion trophy won by the under-19 team and did not spare praise for the players, the coaching staff, the directors and the rest of the staff who contributed to this success. Taking Tiago Silva, Bernardo Lima and André Miranda as examples, all of whom have already made their debut for the first team and were therefore also national champions, the Dragons’ president said he was convinced that a “golden generation” may be emerging.

“Three players from this team have already moved up, three have already made their debut for the first team, which is a good sign. May more players from this generation, which we want to regard as golden, also make their debut for the first team, and may this always be FC Porto’s development project, bringing through new talent, winning, adding titles to the club’s honours list and attracting more and more supporters,” said André Villas-Boas to FC Porto’s media channels, before highlighting the merit of the coaching staff and the structure behind the team.

“They were the ones who delivered the title to FC Porto; it was much more that than my major involvement. There was great involvement from the youth development board, from academy director José Tavares, from Tiago Madureira, Henrique Monteiro and Filipe Ribeiro, people who work with our academy on a daily basis. Then there is the technical side, with Sérgio [Ferreira] leading this entire project. We won a title that had eluded us for seven years, since that generation that left its mark on FC Porto, not only because of what it achieved—the last under-19 title and the Youth League—but also because many of those talents moved up to FC Porto’s first team and were very successful as professional players, namely Diogo Costa. Therefore, I feel enormous pride in the path these players are taking,” added the president.

José Tavares, academy director, said he was pleased with the under-19 title win, but preferred to highlight the players who reached the first team.

“Our greatest trophies are the players who manage to achieve their dreams, namely Bernardo [Lima], Tiago [Silva] and André [Miranda]. When you arrive at FC Porto, you have to work very hard to reach the highest level. Then, when titles are won, they show that we were able to do something much better than the others in the competition, but they begin when players are signed, when they arrive here and when they are developed. When we are fortunate enough to have generations so close together with above-average talent, it is natural for us to have European and World Champions making such early debuts in the first team. FC Porto must feel secure in the knowledge that there is a well-guided process, with a well-structured vision. We very much want to win—that is part of our DNA—but we know the path being followed in the development of these players. They are being prepared earlier to bring joy to our supporters, just as the first team and the under-19s did by winning their respective titles. Congratulations to everyone who was part of this journey,” stressed the Porto official.

Coach Sérgio Ferreira, meanwhile, besides praising the work done throughout the campaign that led the team to the title, spoke about his relationship with Francesco Farioli and André Castro’s decisive role in linking up with the first team.

“First and foremost, it forces us to be very agile, very flexible. We are here to meet the demands of a first team, and it was with that sense of mission that we approached this season. We knew it would be like this from day one. We have grown because we are aligned with the demands of the professional level—and not just any professional level. We are talking about FC Porto, which has very particular and very specific demands. It is important to highlight the importance of someone in all this coordination, and that is André Castro. I already knew him, and he did not surprise me—he is brilliant both as a person and as a coach,” the manager revealed.

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