Ángel Alarcón: “Farioli taught me what is required at the highest level” | OneFootball

Although he left FC Porto in the January transfer window to join Utrecht on loan, Ángel Alarcón harbors no bitterness or resentment over not having secured the place he had hoped for in the Dragons’ first team. In fact, the Spanish winger even has strong praise for Francesco Farioli, the current manager of the blue and whites, who was responsible for giving him his first-team opportunity.

“He is a very energetic and demanding coach. He places great importance on physical work. For him, only the next match matters. That is where all his focus is. He always insists that a defeat can have major consequences for the rest of the season. On a personal level, he was very important for me. He helped me grow mentally and taught me what is required at the highest level,” said Ángel Alarcón in an interview with the magazine ‘Voetbal International’.

From the winger’s point of view, his departure from the Dragão came at the right time, and Farioli himself partly agreed. “Farioli made me aware of Utrecht’s interest. He would have preferred me to stay, but he also told me that Utrecht could be an important step in my career,” he explained.

In the Netherlands, Ángel Alarcón found a style of football very different from what he had known in the Portuguese league and during his youth days at Barcelona. “On television it looks different. The level of the Eredivisie is much higher than people think. It is a strong league, in which all the teams play to attack,” he explained, pointing to that as the biggest difference: “Here the game constantly goes from one end to the other. In Spain it can also be faster, but there are pauses. In Portugal it is more physical, with more duels and more direct play. In transition, the Eredivisie is more similar to what you see in Portugal, but here there is more emphasis on playing with the ball, whereas over there physicality is more dominant,” he said.

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