Farioli starts work with 26 players at the start of FC Porto pre-season | OneFootball

Twenty-six players reported on Monday to the Italian coach, in a group that still does not include Diogo Costa (Portugal) and Eustáquio (Canada), both on duty at the 2026 World Cup, nor Deniz Gül (Turkey), already eliminated from the main international competition but entitled to a few extra days of rest.

Bednarek, Kiwior and Pietuszewski (Poland), Froholdt (Denmark), Zaidu (Nigeria), Rosario (Dominican Republic) and Prpic (Croatia U21) also represented their national teams in friendly matches in June, which is why they will miss the start of Porto’s pre-season and only join the group on Monday.

The young defenders Gabriel Brás, Luís Gomes and Yoan Pereira, midfielders Tiago Silva, João Teixeira, Bernardo Lima and Mateus Mide, as well as forwards Duarte Cunha and Eduardo Ferreira, are training with the first team.

Going the other way, Samuel Portugal, Gabriel Veron and Iván Jaime, who have returned from their respective loans, do not appear on the list of players released today by Porto and should therefore be outside Farioli’s plans for the season.

On the first day, the group was split into two blocks, with half the squad carrying out physical work and assessments at the Jorge Costa Training and Sports Development Centre in Olival, and the other half undergoing medical examinations at the Estádio do Dragão, before switching tasks in the afternoon.

After a season that brought the club’s biggest-ever investment in strengthening the squad and ended with the club winning its first national championship in four years, the team is now seeking stability and has so far only added forward André Silva to directly reinforce the first team, while also securing Kiwior on a permanent deal.

In addition to the Portugal international, who finished his contract with Spain’s Elche and returned to FC Porto nine years later, goalkeeper João Afonso, from Estrela da Amadora, and midfielder Eirik Granaas, from Norway’s Fredrikstad, have also arrived—two young players who will join Farioli’s training sessions, although they will initially spend time with the B team.

On the other side, Thiago Silva left FC Porto at the end of his contract with the ‘Dragons’, as did Luuk de Jong, while Fofana and Moffi completed their loan spells at the end of last season and did not remain with the ‘blue and whites’.

Although a new “100-million market” is not expected, as Porto president André Villas-Boas said in an interview with TSF, Jornal de Notícias and O Jogo, FC Porto are still expected to sign at least one more striker, given De Jong’s departure and the injury to Samu, who is only expected to return to full fitness in November.

FC Porto continue to prepare for the new season in Olival ahead of their training camp in Burton upon Trent, England, between 13 and 18 July, breaking the pattern of the last two seasons, when Austria was the chosen destination.

During the camp, the ‘Dragons’ will stay at St. George’s Park, the training centre of the English Football Association, returning there for the first time since 2014/15, when they were managed by Spanish coach Julen Lopetegui.

Francesco Farioli’s team opens the season in the Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup against Torreense, winners of the Portuguese Cup, at the Cidade de Coimbra Stadium, on a date yet to be confirmed, which could be 31 July, 1 or 2 August.

Goalkeepers: Diogo Costa, Cláudio Ramos, João Costa, João Afonso (formerly of Santa Clara) and Gonçalo Ribeiro.

Defenders: Jan Bednarek, Jakub Kiwior, Alberto Costa, Martim Fernandes, Nehuén Pérez, Gabriel Brás, Zaidu Sanusi, Dominik Prpic, Luís Gomes, Francisco Moura and Yoan Pereira.

Midfielders: Victor Froholdt, Pablo Rosario, Alan Varela, Tiago Silva, João Teixeira, Gabri Veiga, Rodrigo Mora, Stephen Eustáquio (formerly of Los Angeles FC, USA), Eirik Granaas (formerly of Fredrikstad, Norway), Bernardo Lima and Mateus Mide.

Forwards: Pepê, William Gomes, Borja Sainz, Oskar Pietuszewski, Deniz Gül, André Miranda, Duarte Cunha, André Silva (formerly of Elche, Spain) and Eduardo Ferreira.

Departures: Luuk de Jong (end of contract), Thiago Silva (Fluminense, Brazil), Seko Fofana (Rennes, France), Danny Namaso (Auxerre, France) and Ángel Alarcón (Utrecht, Netherlands).

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