Ángel Alarcón: “Farioli taught me what it takes at the highest level” | OneFootball

Despite having left FC Porto in the January transfer window to join Utrecht on loan, Ángel Alarcón bears no bitterness or resentment over not having earned the place he had hoped for in the Dragons’ first team. In fact, the Spanish winger has strong praise for Francesco Farioli, the current coach of the blue-and-whites, who was responsible for giving him his first-team debut.

“He is a very energetic and demanding coach. He places great importance on physical work. For him, only the next match matters. That is where all his focus lies. He always insists that a defeat can have major consequences for the rest of the season. On a personal level, he was very important for me. He helped me grow mentally and taught me what is required at the highest level,” said Ángel Alarcón in an interview with ‘Voetbal International’ magazine.

From the winger’s point of view, leaving the Dragão happened at the right time, and Farioli himself partly agreed. “Farioli made me aware of Utrecht’s interest. He would have preferred me to stay, but he also told me that Utrecht could be an important step in my career,” he explained.

In the Netherlands, Ángel Alarcón found a style of football very different from what he knew from the Portuguese league and from his youth days at Barcelona. “It looks different on television. The level of the Eredivisie is much higher than people think. It is a strong league, where every team plays to attack,” he explained, pointing to that as the biggest difference: “Here the game constantly goes from one end to the other. In Spain it can also be faster, but there are pauses. In Portugal it is more physical, with more duels and a more direct style of play. In transition, the Eredivisie is more similar to what you see in Portugal, but here there is more play with the ball, whereas there the physical side predominates,” he said.

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