Jaime Magalhães: “The league is brief, but Farioli drives this title bid” | OneFootball

FC Porto are very close to lifting the Portuguese championship title again, something the Dragons have not done since the 2021/22 season. Just two points away from confirming victory in the 2025/26 Primeira Liga, Porto could wrap up the trophy as early as this weekend.

In an interview with Desporto ao Minuto, Jaime Magalhães, a former Porto player, argued that FC Porto would be worthy champions for having been the most consistent team among Portugal’s so-called big three.

“Putting together a squad is never easy. For many years, FC Porto had a lot of Porto-type players, meaning players who came through the club, like me, for example — I was there for 20 years — João Pinto, Jorge Couto or Fernando Couto. There was a huge generation of players who came through the club. Then there was also a period when those young players started coming through and began being sold very early. Of course, FC Porto has become more vulnerable when it comes to home-grown players at the moment. Then they have to turn to foreign players, and the choices are not always right — it’s not easy. But this year, thank God, and then with those four signings at the start of the year, things changed for the better,” he began by saying.

“When things go wrong, the coach is usually the one held responsible. And when things go well, people rarely say it’s the coach and instead say it’s the group. FC Porto’s coach managed the team very well, taking out seven players and bringing in another seven, which is not easy at all. The team managed to maintain more or less the same style of play it had always had. In this case, the main architect of this possible league title will be FC Porto’s coach,” said Jaime Magalhães.

Even so, the former player believes that winning the Primeira Liga alone is not enough for a club like FC Porto, although he puts that into perspective in light of their rivals’ performances.

“Winning only the league is not enough, but let’s look, for example, at Benfica’s case. They won’t win anything in this instance. They also made a huge investment. If we look at it on that level, all three teams, which normally invest much more, just look at the loss Benfica will suffer in this case. If we win the league this weekend, we will go straight into the Champions League, which is already half the battle,” he concluded.

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