FC Porto reach 28th Champions League, only three clubs have more | OneFootball

FC Porto return to the Champions League after two years out of the competition, reviving one of the club’s most valuable records. The dragons will make their 28th appearance in the tournament and, in Europe, only three clubs have featured more often in this format: Bayern Munich, with 29 appearances, and Real Madrid and Barcelona, both with 30. In practical terms, the worst effect of this absence – unprecedented for FC Porto since 1992 – was losing third place to the Bavarian club.

Despite that history, the current squad has very limited Champions League experience. Naturally, on June 11 and with the transfer market not yet open, this is only a temporary snapshot, but it serves as a starting point: among the players currently in the group, only seven have already played in the world’s top club competition. Zaidu leads with 28 matches, followed by captain Diogo Costa with 23, and Pepê with 18. Kiwior made 17 for Arsenal, Alan Varela added eight during the dragons’ last spell in the competition, Pablo Rosario has six for PSV, and the list ends with Victor Froholdt, who has a total of 58 Champions League minutes for Copenhagen, against Manchester City, in 2024. In total, the group has 101 matches in the competition, although it remains to be seen whether some of these players may end up heading elsewhere. As O JOGO has already reported, Alan Varela and Pepê, for example, are highly rated in the market.

But it is not all loss: the signing of a player who knows the Champions League well and who even made his FC Porto debut in 2016/17 is already secured. André Silva, whose official announcement is expected soon, has 28 matches in the competition. In a purely theoretical comparison, if Thiago Silva had remained in the squad, he alone would add 105 matches, while the least “experienced” squad in the last edition of the Champions League ended its campaign with the 101 matches accumulated by all its players, as was the case with Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan.

Even so, these numbers always need to be read in context. Just look at Jan Bednarek. Until last season, he had never even taken part in European club competitions, but that does not stop him from being one of the most important figures in the dressing room, because of his accumulated experience and natural leadership. He will make his Champions League debut, although he brings two World Cup appearances on his CV, something far harder to achieve.

The baptism also reaches the bench and, in the aftermath of 2025/26, Francesco Farioli has already spoken about that debut. “I spoke to coaches who have already taken part and they all say it is a different sport, with different demands. The level of players and coaches is as high as possible,” said the FC Porto manager, who also has a Victor Froholdt excited about experiencing the Champions League in full: “I only have one Champions League game on my CV, so I’m eager to be able to play a full Champions League campaign with FC Porto. It’s the biggest tournament in Europe. We’re looking forward to it. Testing ourselves at that level… It’s something we really want as a team, but also individually.”

That positive excitement will, at the same time, be a boost for the Italian in a new phase of the project he envisions at FC Porto. Last season, he had also never been a national champion and had several players in the same situation…

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