André Pereira takes charge of FC Porto futsal: “It’s a great privilege” | OneFootball

André Pereira was chosen to lead FC Porto’s first senior futsal team, which will make its debut in the 2026/27 season in the third national division. At 29, the coach leaves the Dragons’ under-19 side to take on a project designed around continuity, development, and future ambition. At the presentation, he did not hide the symbolic weight of the moment and assured: “It is a great privilege”.

At a founding moment for Porto’s senior futsal side, André Pereira introduced himself with a clear idea: to build a team that respects the club’s identity, without losing sight of the path that had already been laid out. The competitive debut is the first step in a structure intended to connect the youth academy to the first team.

Chosen to lead the new team, the coach highlighted the work carried out in recent times and the makeup of a squad still under construction, based on a balance between different generations.

“It is a great privilege to have been chosen to be the first coach of FC Porto’s senior futsal team, in a logic of continuity of a project that began two years ago. In recent times, we have been working to arrive at today with a technical staff aligned with the winning outlook of this project and with a squad under construction, which ends up embracing great diversity and a mix of youth and experience, so that the players complement one another,” he began.

More than just entering the third division, André Pereira’s words outline a plan that seeks to gain consistency from day one. The ambition is not limited to the present: it also involves creating a foundation capable of sustaining the senior team.

The coach, who until now had managed FC Porto’s under-19 team in the sport, then spoke about the personal relationship he has with the club and the importance of making youth development an effective bridge to the top level.

“Taking into account my past at the club and the way I identify with FC Porto, it was something very special. This day had been in preparation for some time, in the sense that we could create a project based on youth development and culminating with the senior team,” he stressed. “So, it is a very great pride and a very great privilege”.

For Pereira, that bond does not stop at understanding the competitive context. The coach pointed to the need to “know the club’s values and identity”.

“Looking inward and at our academy, I have no doubt that, more than targeting the third division, we are preparing a long-term project and I am certain that we will have players from our academy moving up to the senior team in the short or medium term. That leaves us very comfortable and satisfied. As for the squad we have built, we took care to identify players with the necessary sporting profile and with the human profile and understanding of what it means to be Porto and what this club represents,” he revealed. “We are talking about players who did not hesitate when they learned the invitation was coming from FC Porto. There are players performing at a very good level who understood that they had no other option but to be with us, since their hearts are blue and white”.

The building of the group is thus presented as an extension of the culture the coach wants to see inside the arena. The focus on human qualities appears side by side with sporting demands, in a team called upon to represent an identity even before consolidating its competitive path.

The final commitment left by André Pereira was addressed to the supporters. The intention is for the new senior team to reflect FC Porto’s way of being, in any game context.

“From the day we began thinking about building this team and this structure, we began building a team in the image of the supporters. We want the supporters to identify with this team and understand that we are representing them, regardless of the arena where we are playing, whether at home or away, and regardless of the moment in the game,” he concluded. “This will have to prevail from beginning to end”.

It is a promise of identity to accompany the birth of a new project. Between youth development, the squad, and the connection to the stands, André Pereira places the representation of the club at the center of Porto’s senior futsal debut.

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