Jardel: “My two Portuguese sons, one Benfica, one Porto fan” | OneFootball

Many years have passed, but few have matched Jardel’s numbers in Portuguese football: 239 goals in 251 games for FC Porto, Sporting, and Beira-Mar.

“At FC Porto, I saw that the ball would come and I felt calm, I would just say, ‘put the ball in the box and I’ll take care of it.’ And it would come with Capucho, Drulovic, Sérgio Conceição. I was born to score goals, not to play well. When people tell me in the street, ‘you played really well,’ I say, ‘the ones who played really well were Ronaldinho Gaúcho, Deco.’ I scored goals,” he remarked on Sem Filtros, the Liga Portugal podcast.

“The stadiums where I most liked to score goals were, obviously, Estádio do Dragão and Estádio José Alvalade. FC Porto and Sporting are like two children to me,” he says. The striker admits that, when he thinks of Portugal, his first memories are the four years he spent at FC Porto.

His record includes four national championships, three Portuguese Cups, and four Super Cups, and at 52 years old, he still fuels the rivalry.

“I also liked scoring at Estádio da Luz, just so Benfica fans wouldn’t be too sad,” he says, laughing. He recalls that he was “close to wearing the Benfica shirt twice,” once before signing with FC Porto in 1996 and again in 2000, when he was an electoral promise of Manuel Vilarinho.

“When I go to Portugal, I receive a lot of affection and here in Fortaleza there are many Portuguese people. Portugal is a home to me, I have two Portuguese children, who were born in Porto – one a Benfica fan and one a Porto fan (laughs). (…) Even Benfica fans show me affection in the street,” he says.

During the conversation, Jardel also mentions his experience in Turkey, playing for Galatasaray [in 2000, between FC Porto and Sporting].

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