“I'm very competitive and a real grafter”, insists Fátima Pinto | OneFootball

Fátima Pinto returns to Portugal to join FC Porto’s women’s football team, in a debut year in the First Division that the international player approaches with ambition and high standards. The new number 18 points to the group’s competitiveness, the sharing of experience with her teammates, and the importance of bringing the fans closer to the team. Happy to be reunited with Portuguese football, she assured: “It’s really very good.”

At a time of building and establishing itself, Fátima Pinto arrives at FC Porto with the background of someone who knows other competitive environments, but without giving up her willingness to learn. The message runs through every answer: experience only carries real weight when it is placed at the service of a squad that wants to grow and fight at the top.

Asked about her return to Portugal, the midfielder did not hide her satisfaction at representing FC Porto and finding an environment aligned with her competitive ambition.

“I feel very happy to be able to return to Portugal and represent a great club like FC Porto. It’s really very good,” she said. “It’s always very good to return to Portugal, and being at a club like FC Porto is even better. It means being able to perform at a very high level, in a competitive team that is striving to be at its best. That’s what I’m looking for too, to be in a team that wants to be at the top.”

Fátima Pinto’s enthusiasm is not only a celebration of her return. It is also identification with a team that, in her words, seeks to maintain high standards.

The experience she has built up in the First Division and in other leagues is one of the qualities the player brings to the blue-and-white dressing room. Even so, the new number 18 refused to present herself only as a reference point, underlining the importance of exchange within the group.

“It’s good to have a background in the First Division and in other leagues, but I’m here to learn from my teammates as well,” she explained. “Obviously, I will also try to pass on everything I know and all my experience to them. But yes, I think it’s something good that can also add something.”

There is, in this idea, a collective view of the role she intends to assume: learning from the present without keeping to herself what she has brought from her previous journey. Experience appears as a starting point, not a destination.

Her spells in the Spanish League and the French League also shaped the way Fátima Pinto sees the game. The intensity of those championships is one of the hallmarks she hopes to bring to Portugal.

“The truth is that they are very different contexts from our league. Both the Spanish League and the French League are very different from each other,” she analysed. “The type of football is also different. The intensity is undoubtedly very high, and it’s good to be able to bring that here as well.”

The comparison is not meant to establish hierarchies, but to underline the diversity of experiences she carries with her. In a growing squad, that experience can translate into daily demands.

FC Porto’s path in women’s football had not gone unnoticed by her before her arrival. Fátima Pinto held on to one image in particular, linked to the first match at the Estádio do Dragão against UD Leiria.

“I remember perfectly the first game at the Estádio do Dragão, against UD Leiria, and it was an image I really liked seeing,” she recalled. “That in itself says a little about FC Porto’s journey. I hope that from now on it continues to be like that and that we can fill the stadium.”

The desire to see the stadium full is connected to the scale she recognises in the project. For Fátima Pinto, that closeness can accompany the team’s journey from here on.

In the picture she paints of the squad, the footballer finds youth, familiar faces and a competitive hunger that she considers decisive. The combination of different career stages is, for her, one of the group’s promises.

“I’m very happy to see again some faces I already know and, in terms of the squad, we have many young girls who I think also have that competitive hunger. It’s not that we older ones don’t have it, but it will be very interesting in that sense as well, to bring the young players together with experience and be able to do something with everyone.”

The coexistence of youthful boldness and experience appears as an opportunity to build a more complete team. Ambition, meanwhile, is not reserved for one generation.

On the responsibility of the more experienced players, Fátima Pinto was direct in pointing out the path she believes is necessary for the younger ones.

“I think we have to help the younger ones grow in that sense and understand competitiveness, understand that this is the highest level and that we are representing a great club, so we have to give everything and take a step forward.”

It is a demand that goes beyond the language of integration. Representing FC Porto, she argues, requires understanding the scale of the challenge and responding to it with everything you have.

When describing herself, Fátima Pinto clearly separates the person from the player. Outside the four lines she is relaxed; inside them, competitive seriousness prevails.

“I’m a very different person on and off the pitch,” she described. “I think outside the four lines I’m very relaxed, but in there it’s maximum seriousness, I’m very competitive, I’m a real fighter, and when I’m playing it is always with maximum seriousness.”

The portrait helps explain the tone of her words: calm away from the game, total intensity when the ball starts rolling. That is the side of herself she intends to place at the team’s disposal.

Her debut has not yet been thought about too much, but the expectation is already there.

“I haven’t had much time to think about it yet, but I think it’s going to be very beautiful.”

The brevity of the answer leaves room for anticipation of a moment the player views with enthusiasm. Before that, there is a presentation she would like to experience with the stands full and close to the action.

Fátima Pinto called for a strong fan presence at the stadium, seeing that support as an important boost for a debut season in the First Division.

“I’d like to see the stadium with lots of fans, and I think that would be a good push for our season and for our debut year in the First Division. If right in the first game we can see that we have the fans with us, I think that’s also a very important extra push.”

The appeal extends the idea of a team that wants to grow with those who follow it. In a year of adaptation and novelty, the strength coming from the stands is seen as an important part of the journey.

The new number 18 therefore left a clear message for the fans, asking them to follow the team in this early stage at the highest level.

“Come watch women’s football, support us and push us on, because we’re going to need it too,” she urged. “It’s the first year at the highest level, it’s always difficult, there’s an adaptation, there are many new things, but without a doubt their little push is always an extra strength.”

Fátima Pinto acknowledges the natural difficulties of a new stage, but does not lessen the ambition. Between competitiveness, experience and support, FC Porto gains a player who promises to face every challenge with maximum seriousness.

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