FC Porto women's football on the rise, edging closer to going professional | OneFootball

[few years, women’s football, FC Porto, promotion, professionalization, conditions]Created last season, FC Porto’s senior women’s football team immediately secured promotion from the 3rd to the 2nd Division in their debut, currently leads the championship qualification phase at that level, and on Wednesday, booked their ticket to the Portuguese Cup final, where they will face Benfica. The team, launched by the board led by André Villas-Boas just a few months after he took over as president of the Dragons in April 2024, is thus on its way to the planned professionalization.

In terms of media exposure, qualifying for Jamor brings the young Porto players closer to much more established projects, such as those of Benfica, Sporting, and also Sp. Braga. But from a competitive standpoint, the reality is different, and it is precisely this gap that FC Porto aims to close in the coming years. According to information gathered by Record, the growth plan for women’s football at FC Porto was structured in three phases, with the next step being the consolidation of the main team as professional, something that has not yet happened at this time.

Going back to the origin of the project, in 2024/25, when the senior level was launched, FC Porto focused mainly on young Portuguese players, some still minors, who also played in the under-19 and under-17 teams, and many of them were second options for 1st and 2nd Division squads. The goal was not only to ensure competitiveness in the 3rd tier but also to lay the foundations for the future. With limited financial resources to offer the athletes beyond residual amateur football allowances, FC Porto tried to attract young talent through the ambition of the project and the strength of the club’s brand. With promotion achieved, the plan moved into the second phase.

This season, the senior team began operating on a semi-professional basis. The group includes 10 professional athletes, with the rest being amateurs. The squad was thoroughly revamped, although part of the core group was absorbed with the creation of the B team, competing in the 4th Division, which completes the structure of the sport, along with the under-19, under-17, under-15, under-13, under-11, and under-9 levels.

Next season, especially if promotion to the Liga BPI is achieved, women’s football could enter the consolidation phase. Even so, without rushing to close the competitive gap between the senior team and its rivals. For now, the Dragons have raised the team’s level with several signings, including Americans Cora Brendle, Eliza Turner, and Lily Bryant—the latter scoring the goal in the Cup semi-final against V. Guimarães that secured the 1-0 win—as well as Danish player Laerke Tingleff, Slovak Lenka Mazachova, and Frenchwoman Mady Soumaré, in the winter transfer window. Among the Portuguese, the acquisitions of Maria Negrão and Mariana Azevedo, both formerly of Sp. Braga, stand out.

Regarding national players, the blue and white ambition is, in the future, also to contribute to the National Team, although this is still a difficult goal to achieve in the short term, given the level of competition. Even so, FC Porto already has, for example, two players in the under-23 category, Lara Perruca and Maria Ferreira, as well as other athletes in the younger age groups.

Investment also in terms of conditions

One of the factors highlighted by FC Porto officials as a differentiator compared to other projects, when launching the senior team, was the conditions offered to athletes as a development tool. If in the debut season the club faced greater difficulties in this area, especially due to the need to fit the team into the Olival Training Center—which often gave way to the Jorge Sampaio Stadium in Pedroso—this season the team is already training full-time at the facility recently renamed after Jorge Costa.

Moreover, in addition to having, from the debut season, a technical team and a support staff that was large for the reality of a 3rd Division side, in 2025/26 another step forward was taken with the strengthening of these areas, particularly in terms of the medical team, physiotherapists, and the support of a performance department member. On the other hand, support from the clinical and scouting departments also became centralized, operating simultaneously with the men’s and women’s senior squads, except for some professionals exclusively dedicated.

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