Villas-Boas' challenge for next season: “Hunger to win won't let us rest” | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas wrapped up the 2025/26 season with a message of review and mobilization, in a text where he presented FC Porto as a club of titles, unity, and renewed high standards. The president reviewed the clean sweep in youth football, the success of the first team led by Francesco Farioli, and the rise of the club’s other sports, without losing sight of preparations for next season. At the heart of it all was one idea running through the speech from start to finish: the club’s competitive identity, and he assured: “the hunger to win.”

In issue 475 of Dragões magazine, the FC Porto president turned the end of the season into an exercise in recent memory and, at the same time, immediate projection. André Villas-Boas presented 2025/26 as an internal milestone, built on results, reorganization, and a culture of high standards that, in his view, put the club back on what he sees as its natural path.

Right from the opening, the president framed the season as a special moment in Porto’s history, linking the achievements to the idea of reconnecting with the club’s competitive DNA. The tone was celebratory, but also assertive, as if aiming to cement a narrative of recovery and identity.

“June brought to a close a season that will remain forever in the memory of Futebol Clube do Porto. A season of titles, of affirmation, of pride, and of a unity that gave us back what defines us most: the hunger to win,” he wrote. “2025/26 will forever be a special year in FC Porto’s history. A year of the Dragon.”

More than a simple review, the wording seeks to turn the season into a guiding idea. The president does not merely list trophies; he links them to a symbolic restoration, as if sporting success had also served to reaffirm a collective identity.

When he went into the football details, Villas-Boas highlighted the extent of the blue-and-white dominance, from the senior side to the youth ranks, as well as women’s football and the B team. The list is presented as proof of breadth and as an argument for structural consistency.

“We were senior national champions, winning our 31st title. We won the Under-19, Under-17 and Under-15 championships,” he noted. “We completed a historic clean sweep in domestic football, repeating feats only FC Porto has achieved, such as in 1985/86 and 1997/98. To this we added the national title in women’s football, with promotion to the First Division, and a brilliant season from the B team, which matched the club’s previous points record set when it became champions.”

The president then insisted on the idea that the success was not circumstantial, but the consequence of a defined line of work. The message is clear: the club wants to win in the present without disconnecting youth development from the future of the first team.

“This is not chance. It is not luck. It is not circumstance. It is work. It is method. It is criteria,” he stressed. “It is a clear vision of what we want for FC Porto football: to win today, to develop better for tomorrow, and to build a structure that sustains the future.”

It is one of the most political axes of the text: taking success out of the realm of momentary inspiration and placing it in the realm of construction. In doing so, Villas-Boas seeks to give depth to the triumph and prepare the argument for the project’s sustainability.

In the chapter on youth development, the president made a point of underlining the specific weight of the clean sweep achieved in the youth age groups. The comparison with the club’s recent history serves to emphasize the scale of the change.

“Before this season, and since 2010/11, FC Porto had won only six of the 39 national titles available in the Under-19, Under-17 and Under-15 categories. This clean sweep therefore has even greater significance,” he said. “It is confirmation of a change in direction, ambition and standards in our development project, one that we want to endure over time and, in due course, turn junior players into professional players in the first team.”

The president then extended recognition to those responsible for the sector, naming names and roles in a detailed expression of thanks. It is also a way of personalizing merit and putting faces to an area that, in his view, has once again shown signs of internal authority.

“I therefore want to express enormous recognition to all the players, coaches, technical staffs, support departments, health and performance unit, scouting, sporting and executive management, and everyone who works every day to elevate the player developed at FC Porto. In particular, to José Tavares, Director of Youth Development, for the work he has carried out since returning to FC Porto,” he highlighted. “In just two years, he has helped the Club achieve another clean sweep that goes straight into our History.”

The president extended that recognition to the coaching staffs and projects he considers exemplary within FC Porto’s football structure.

“I also congratulate Sérgio Ferreira, José João and Manuel Prata, as well as their coaching staffs, for the work carried out in their respective age groups. I also salute João Brandão for the excellent season by the B team, Daniel Chaves and Professor José Manuel for the remarkable journey of the women’s football team, which brought us the title, promotion, and a presence at Jamor that made us very proud.”

The emphasis on proper names reinforces the idea of an internal value chain. There is not just one victory to celebrate; there is an ecosystem that the president wants to publicly legitimize.

Speaking about the first team, Villas-Boas identified Francesco Farioli as a central figure of the season. The praise for FC Porto’s coach is linked to method, courage, and the ability to return the team to the place the president considers compatible with the club’s history.

“In senior football too, this year had one unavoidable name: Francesco Farioli. He led with method, courage and a level of demand deeply aligned with what FC Porto is,” he wrote. “He quickly understood the Club, united the group, maximized talent, and brought us back to the place our History demands. The broad success of FC Porto football is also born of that shared competitive culture, in which everyone works to win and to elevate every day the symbol they represent.”

At this point, the text finds its center of gravity: the coach as the practical expression of a collective culture. More than highlighting one face, the president uses Farioli to sum up the idea of a common discipline that he intends to extend across FC Porto football.

Villas-Boas’s gaze did not, however, remain fixed on the pitch. In one of the broadest passages of the message, the president sought to highlight the governing and executive machine that, in his view, underpinned the recovery after a frustrating previous season.

“This year of the Dragon does not belong only to those who take the field. It also belongs to those who support, accompany, decide, execute and protect the Club every day,” he emphasized. “I therefore want to offer deep thanks to the governing bodies of Futebol Clube do Porto, to the Board, the Administration, the Executive Committee, and all the managerial and executive teams who work with me every day. Nothing we built this year would have been possible without loyalty, competence, courage and a sense of mission.”

Along the same lines, the president recalled the pressure and difficult decisions that marked the process, contrasting them with the image of a cohesive structure.

“There were difficult decisions, long hours, moments of pressure, and constant demands, especially after a frustrating season such as 2024/2025. But above all, there was a united structure around the same objective: to put FC Porto back on the path of victory and onto the road to the title,” he summed up. “And that path was not made only in football.”

There is an important movement here: celebration turns into legitimization of governance. What was achieved on the field is presented as the reflection of a broader unity, with the club appearing as a coordinated organism rather than a scattered sum of successes.

That reading extends to the other sports, starting with basketball, where Villas-Boas highlighted the return to the national title. The president praised the team’s ability to overcome difficulties and reserved special words for Fernando Sá, coach of FC Porto’s basketball team.

“In basketball, we became national champions again ten years later. It was a title with a special taste, won by a team that reinvented itself several times throughout the season, faced injuries, unforeseen setbacks and difficulties, but never lost belief,” he said. “Under the command of Fernando Sá, a champion in this house as a player and now a champion as a coach, FC Porto returned to the place it aspired to. It is a beautiful, deserved and deeply Porto victory.”

The president also pointed to the support work done off the court and left a special note for Pedro Machado.

“I also recognize the work of Mário Santos, General Director of Sports, and Alberto Babo, board member responsible for professional sports, for the effort devoted to renewing this team and building the conditions that allowed us to become champions again. And I do not forget Pedro Machado, a young player from FC Porto’s basketball academy, who battled cancer all season and also became a National Champion,” he said. “His strength inspired us. This title is his too.”

Basketball thus appears as a summary of resilience and belonging. The way the president describes it fits into the text’s larger narrative: winning, yes, but winning with an identity that is recognizable and emotionally shared.

Broadening the focus to the club’s wider multi-sport dimension, Villas-Boas presented a picture of competitive abundance. Roller hockey, women’s volleyball, billiards and goalball appear as proof of a broad-based ambition.

“In our sports teams, the year was one of excellence. We were European champions in roller hockey for the fourth time, with a team that reinvented itself, played roller hockey of enormous quality, and once again reached the top of Europe,” he wrote. “In women’s volleyball, we won the National Championship and the Portuguese Cup. We celebrated a treble in billiards and a third straight title in goalball in adapted sport. This is eclecticism with ambition. This is Porto everywhere. This is a Club that does not compete to take part: it competes to win.”

The final sentence of this block functions almost like a manifesto. It does not merely describe results; it defines an institutional posture in which competing without the aim of victory is simply not enough.

The president also reserved space for supporter association life, pointing to the celebration held by the FC Porto House of Monção as an expression of a living connection between the club and its fans. Here, the text swaps the vocabulary of conquest for that of belonging.

“June was also a month of association life and living memory. We celebrated the 25th anniversary of the FC Porto House of Monção, in a beautiful gathering with around 250 Porto supporters from northern Portugal, those who feel the Club as a deep sense of belonging,” he noted. “The FC Porto Houses are embassies of our soul. They are meeting points of family, activism and identity. They are one of the purest ways of understanding that FC Porto does not end at the Dragão: it begins there and spreads across the world, thanks to the altruism of its leaders who, with great attachment and love for our Club, help it grow and assert itself.”

It is a passage that helps complete the portrait Villas-Boas aims to paint: FC Porto as a community, not merely as a team or structure. Victory appears, once again, linked to an emotional foundation that the president treats as part of the club’s strength.

With next season already on the horizon, the official made a point of stressing that success does not allow for rest. The arrival of reinforcements is tied to a warning about the weight of the shirt and the culture of commitment demanded at the Dragão.

“At the same time as we celebrate, we are already building next season. Because at FC Porto, victory is not rest, it is responsibility,” he stressed. “We welcome André Silva, João Afonso and Eirik Granaas, reinforcements who arrive at a demanding, winning home that is aware of the weight of its History. May they quickly understand what it means to represent FC Porto: talent is important, but commitment, hard work and respect for the badge are indispensable.”

The warning is consistent with the whole text: the trophy closes nothing; instead, it increases the obligation. In that logic, victory is less an end point than a standard that must be defended immediately.

In the other sports too, the president marked moments of transition, beginning with the departure of Magnus Andersson and the arrival of Carlos Martingo in handball. The tone was one of recognition for the past and high expectations for the future.

“In our sports teams, some cycles end and others begin. Magnus Andersson says goodbye after a journey that deserves recognition and gratitude. He led, competed, and marked an important chapter in our handball,” he wrote. “Now it is Carlos Martingo’s turn, a man of the house who knows our values and principles, and to whom we wish the greatest success, with the certainty that FC Porto will continue to enter every competition with the ambition to win.”

Villas-Boas also devoted a special note to Joana Resende, closing one competitive cycle and opening another within the club structure. It is praise that values the continuity of the bond and the athlete’s symbolic weight.

“Our Joana Resende is also closing her cycle as an athlete, but she will remain with us, now integrated into the Club’s structure. Joana, beyond her qualities as an athlete, stood out at FC Porto for her character, dedication and a deeply loving commitment to the Club,” he noted. “It was 12 trophies in seven years wearing blue and white. Everything she won, everything she gave, and everything she means to Porto supporters will now continue in the service of FC Porto in another role, but surely with the same passion and the same high standards. Thank you for so much, dear Joana!”

In the final stretch of the message, the president turned to the fans and to internal unity as the pillars of a season he defined as historic. The celebration, however, is always restrained by the idea of permanent obligation.

“So ends the 2025/2026 season. A season we can all be proud of. This was a year of achievements thanks to you, who filled the Estádio do Dragão and the Arena time and again, as well as many grounds and difficult away trips,” he concluded. “We confirmed that unity remains our greatest strength. We confirmed that, when all departments, all teams, all governing bodies, the entire structure and all the fans move in the same direction, FC Porto becomes once again what it has always been: a force that is hard to stop. We celebrated a lot. We won a lot. We made History. But the hunger to win does not allow us to fall asleep.”

“At FC Porto, success does not close cycles: it opens responsibilities. The year of the Dragon is written. The next one has already begun,” he assured. “We are FC Porto. And our commitment to victory is non-negotiable. Long live Futebol Clube do Porto!”

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