“I’m very proud to be FC Porto captain” | OneFootball

Ema Gonçalves extended her contract with FC Porto and spoke with the confidence of someone who feels a sense of belonging, fulfilled ambition and accepted duty. The 24-year-old defender looked back on promotion to the Liga BPI, the most memorable moments of the season, the symbolism of the captain’s armband and the strength of a dressing room that, she assures, never left her alone. At the heart of it all was one simple but powerful idea: “I’m where I want to be, at the Club I want to be at.”

Some renewals are merely contractual formalities, while others validate a journey. In the case of Ema Gonçalves, captain of FC Porto’s women’s team, her continuation is tied to a long-standing goal: reaching the Liga BPI within two years and doing so in blue and white, at the club she loves, with the feeling that the plan has moved from paper to pitch.

When explaining what renewing with the club means, her tone was immediately shaped by Porto identity and by the pride of wearing the shirt as an FC Porto player. Without hesitation, Ema Gonçalves placed the renewal alongside her personal achievements.

“Every day has been special since I came here. It’s a privilege to wear this shirt, not only as a Porto supporter, but now as an FC Porto player too,” she said. “It’s a very special day for me. When I came here my goal was to reach the Liga BPI within two years and having achieved that is a privilege and a source of pride.”

More than celebrating a contract, the defender highlights the fulfilment of a purpose that had been with her since her arrival. It is this meeting point between individual ambition and collective demands that gives weight to the moment and opens the door to looking back.

Recalling her first contact with the Porto reality, Ema Gonçalves described the initial impact and how quickly you learn to live at the pace of a club that always demands more. The Estádio do Dragão appears in that account as the gateway to a culture of permanent high standards.

“I remember perfectly the day we came here for the first time to introduce ourselves to one another. Arriving at the Estádio do Dragão and understanding how all this works was an amazing feeling,” she recalled. “Now I’m more used to it. Time goes by very quickly and an FC Porto player has to be used to that. We were successful yesterday, but we’re already thinking about today’s success and tomorrow’s. There’s time to celebrate, but there also has to be time to work and improve. We’re always thinking about what comes next.”

In the way she describes that first impression, there is a clear sense of competitive continuity, almost without pause. Success there is not a finishing line; it is simply the obligation to prepare the next step.

Asked about establishing herself as a starter, the captain rejected any simplistic reading and preferred to share the credit between daily work and the confidence placed in her. There was effort, there was quality, but also the awareness that football depends on opportunities that must be seized.

“I always work very hard to be a starter and I worked very hard throughout the season for that to happen. I think it was recognition for my work, but you also need the good fortune of feeling that the coaching staff believe in you,” she explained. “Sometimes talent and hard work aren’t enough, you also need that bit of luck, and thankfully I had it. Things happened naturally and I hope they continue that way next season.”

It is a clear-eyed portrait of someone who neither romanticises the journey nor reduces it to individual merit. A starting place thus appears as the result of consistency, but also of context, and next season is already on the horizon with the same naturalness as what has already been achieved.

When it came to the best moments of the season, Ema Gonçalves did not choose immediately. Between promotion to the Liga BPI and the Portuguese Cup campaign, her words moved between collective achievement, the frustration of injury and an emotion that is still hard to explain.

“It’s hard to choose one. The match in which we were promoted to the Liga BPI was a mix of emotions, because we worked for that all season, but I got injured in the week of the match. It was hard, but I was happy,” she admitted. “It was the culmination of these two incredible years in which our goal was to reach the Liga BPI. If I had to choose the best moment of the season, I’d have to say the game against Vitória SC in the second leg of the Portuguese Cup semi-finals. It was an incredible emotion. I couldn’t stop crying because I knew we were really going to Jamor. I don’t even really know what that means yet, we’ll only understand it 100% when we’re there. So although the moment we were crowned champions was excellent, the Portuguese Cup was a very good extra.”

In these words lies the full weight of a season lived from within: the injury at the very moment the goal is achieved, the joy that survives adversity and the sense that some achievements are only truly understood when they are lived. Promotion confirmed the project; Jamor added an emotional dimension that is hard to measure.

On the captain’s armband, the message was brief and direct, without embellishment. The captain spoke of the role by giving it its proper name: responsibility, yes, but also pride.

“It’s a great responsibility, but it’s a responsibility I like dealing with and I’m very proud to be captain of FC Porto.”

The short sentence neatly explains how she positions herself within the group. There is no burden that distances her from the role; rather, there is the natural acceptance of a position lived between high standards and identity.

That collective identity became even clearer when she spoke about her injury and the way the group supported her. There, the dressing room motto stopped sounding like a mere phrase and became a concrete experience.

“The motto ‘Seguimos Juntos’ really has great meaning here at FC Porto. When I got injured, I felt that everyone was with me,” she stressed. “I felt it and I still feel it. I notice that they are all concerned about me in training, they ask me how I’m doing and wish me a good recovery. I always felt the team was with me, as they were throughout the season, but they were important to me in this special moment.”

More than a slogan, Ema Gonçalves describes a support network that becomes visible precisely when the game slows down for one player. And it is in that detail, often invisible outside the dressing room, that the solidity of a team that wants to keep growing can be measured.

On returning to the First Division, the defender went back to the starting point: what she imagined when she arrived and what she feels now as she signs on to continue. In her words, the renewal closes one cycle and opens another without losing the same direction.

“When I came to FC Porto I was already thinking about this moment and this day. Signing a contract to play in the First Division is incredible,” she said. “I’m where I want to be, at the Club I want to be at, and I couldn’t dream of anything better.”

What remains is the image of a captain speaking about the future with the calm of someone who recognises the path already travelled. In Ema Gonçalves’s FC Porto, ambition is inseparable from affection – and perhaps that is why the promise to continue makes so much sense.

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