Leonino exclusive: Salema Garção on Suárez and Sporting future | OneFootball

Miguel Salema Garção felt that the alleged link between Luis Suárez and Fenerbahçe should be seen in the context of the electoral process the Turkish club is going through. In an interview with our newspaper, the former team manager of Sporting also stressed that, if he remains at Alvalade, he believes the episode will have no impact on the dressing room and that the forward will continue to "give everything on the pitch"

"This is the market at work. It is also due to the fact that, in this case, they are in the middle of an election process in which one of the candidates tried, in some way, to find a set of trump cards to help him win. Just look at what happened at Real Madrid as well. It is desperation," he began by saying.

Given the situation, he argues that the value of the striker’s release clause is the key to a possible departure: "If, in some way, the corresponding 80 million comes in as worthwhile compensation, then it is simply a matter of paying. Referring to the age aspect, Luis Suárez is 28 years old and, in the eyes of modern football, you could say he is entering his final cycle of top-level 'performance'."

If Luis Suárez remains at Alvalade, Miguel Salema Garção believes what happened will not affect the dressing room: "The players are professionals, Sporting has an apparently solid structure, and the sporting company has a management team that currently shows a track record of success and some financial solidity. Therefore, I believe Luis Suárez will continue to be a professional and give everything on the pitch."

The former executive also gave a negative assessment of the 2025/26 season: "If Sporting had not lost the Portuguese Cup final, it would have been a positive season, but they did lose it. However, the incredible Champions League campaign was important to the point of increasing the value of the football company’s assets. The fact that we finished second in the league is also extremely positive, but obviously that black mark at the end gives the impression that it ends up being a season we could not consider entirely positive."

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