Fernando on Porto: “FC Porto is the home that shaped me in every way” | OneFootball

He arrived at FC Porto from Vila Nova, still very raw, coming from Brazil’s interior. He went out on loan to Estrela da Amadora before establishing himself as an undisputed piece of Porto’s midfield, under coaches such as Jesualdo Ferreira, André Villas-Boas, Vítor Pereira, Paulo Fonseca and Luís Castro. At the end of a career that is still taking him across the pitches, Fernando has no doubts about pointing out where it all began, in an interview with the newspaper “O JOGO”.

“It was the club where I played the longest, where I had the greatest stability, and it was my gateway into Europe”, the midfielder stresses, grateful to the Dragons for everything he learned. “They taught me many things: the winning mentality, never giving up, always being ready for the next game regardless of victories. Not letting anything go to your head. That was the DNA FC Porto gave me; it made me grow as a person and as a player. I left for Portugal very young, from the interior of Brazil. I had few resources, little football education, and I learned to be very organized and to take care of my future.”

“I arrived here completely raw”

His time at FC Porto was, in practice, a complete school — on and off the pitch. Fernando does not hide the transformation he went through in the Invicta city.

“I arrived here completely raw, even in human terms. FC Porto was the home that prepared me in every way, they were very patient with me and made me a great player”, he admits. “I grew with the humility to listen to constructive criticism and I was able to leave more mature, with a defined winning mentality and structured enough not to go through hardship. It was a seven-year course, and everything about it was sensational.”

The Brazilian says his footballing revolution was above all down to Jesualdo Ferreira, the coach who quickly understood the raw potential he had on his hands. “I was very quick, with good technique, but I had problems understanding the game. In Brazil I knew nothing about oriented control, I played on long grass and in extreme heat, and here I started playing on short grass, with much quicker circulation. The growth I had was fantastic — I owe the career I had to FC Porto and Jesualdo.”

Jesualdo the teacher, Villas-Boas the visionary, Vítor Pereira the beautiful football

Asked to sum up the coaches who guided him, Fernando offers a brief but accurate portrait of each of them.

“Jesualdo was a teacher; Villas-Boas, a visionary who identified everything the team needed; and Vítor Pereira refined it with beautiful football. I loved the midfield carousel with Lucho, Moutinho and also James”, he recalls, evoking one of the brightest eras in FC Porto’s recent history. “Then, with Paulo Fonseca and Luís Castro, it was more complicated, because the squad did not have as much quality and the opponents became better.”

Porto’s talent-spotting machine

After four league titles and a European trophy, Fernando is keen to highlight FC Porto’s intelligence in building its squads — a scouting machine that, for years, was a global benchmark.

“At the time, we felt that FC Porto made spectacular signings. The players arrived and showed enormous potential. FC Porto was far ahead, doing many things well, going to South America, investing and developing the players they brought in, maximizing sales. We looked at the squad and thought another one like it would never come — and they still managed to make another cheap and very good signing.”

The examples come naturally to his mind: “When Falcao left, Jackson arrived. I had never heard of him, and he came with extraordinary quality. They brought Hulk from Japan, Fernando from Vila Nova, young James from Argentina. We were all sold very well, helping the club a lot to become champions. I was part of great squads and saw great coaches who helped players grow individually and collectively.”

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