João Mário: “I won it all at Porto, felt it was time to move on” | OneFootball

João Mário, who has already represented Bologna, was presented this Tuesday as a reinforcement for the Italian team, coming from Juventus on loan until the end of the season. The defender spoke about leaving the "blue and whites," his six months with the "vecchia signora," and the transfer to the eighth place in the Italian championship.

The 26-year-old player, trained in Invicta, admits that despite having won "all the titles he could have won" with FC Porto, he felt that the best thing for his career would be to change clubs.

"It's true that I was at FC Porto for quite a while, it was the club where I grew up, where I was trained, since I was little, and I think it reached a point where I felt I needed a new challenge. I think in Porto I managed to win everything, I won all the titles I could have won, and it reached a stage where I felt I needed (to leave), that I wanted another challenge, a new adventure, to step out of my comfort zone, and that's what I did," he began by saying.

João Mário spent six months at Juventus, where he even had a promising start. For the defender, the move to Bologna represents an opportunity to accumulate more playing time.

"It's true that, after six months, I moved here, things at Juventus ended up as they did, these are choices, technical choices, choices we have to respect. I felt it could be a good solution to come to Bologna, to have more playing time, more opportunities to really show my potential, and that's what I'm looking to do until the end of the season. Then, in the end, we'll see, I think about the present, because if we think too much about the future, things don't end up going very well. We have to live in the present, that's how I approach life, so I'm not focused on what will happen at the end of the season, I'm just focused on helping Bologna achieve its goals," he added.

Bologna is preparing to face Brann in the play-off for access to the round of 16 of the Europa League, a competition in which FC Porto is also involved and is awaiting an opponent, having finished in fifth place, thus guaranteeing direct entry to the next phase. Since his arrival at Bologna, João Mário has played three games without registering any goal contributions.

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