Number of internationals has soared in just one year | OneFootball

Francesco Farioli has given the squad a break until tomorrow, but upon returning to Olival he will find few players available: eight players have been called up to their respective senior national teams and another two, Rodrigo Mora and Prpic, to the U21 teams of Portugal and Croatia, respectively. This number of internationals is in line with the size of FC Porto, something that hadn’t been seen for a year.

Compared to the same international break in 2024, the Dragons have almost tripled the number of senior internationals, a clear sign of the squad’s qualitative leap. Only three of the eight called up to the senior national teams were already part of the squad: Diogo Costa, Eustáquio, and Alan Varela. The Argentine is now making his debut in Lionel Scaloni’s team. A year ago, Wendell completed the trio of Porto players on international duty.

In the meantime, much has changed. FC Porto strengthened in the market with players who are established in their national teams, such as Bednarek, Kiwior, and Pablo Rosario, and with young players who had already been called up, like Froholdt and Deniz Gul, the latter having been “promoted” over the course of last season. The blue and white contingent could have been even larger if Mora had been called up by Roberto Martínez (he will go to the U21s) and if Samu – who was injured when the call-ups were announced – and Zaidu had joined Spain and Nigeria, respectively, during this break.

As already reported by O JOGO, of the ten players called up to their national teams, only Alan Varela will face long trips to South America and matches in time zones very different from Portugal’s. The midfielder’s last game will be in the early hours of the 10th, so he is only expected to return to Olival two days later.

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