Villas-Boas on Cardoso Varela: “Like Mora, he could play for Porto” | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas spoke again about the Cardoso Varela case, presenting it as a clear example of the system’s failures in protecting underage players. In an interview with Kicker, the FC Porto president said: “Like Rodrigo Mora, Cardoso Varela could also be playing for FC Porto’s first team right now. We had planned for him to complete pre-season with the first team that year [when he disappeared from the radar]. We see more and more people driven by the temptation of financial gain, exploiting the careers of underage players and destroying their dreams.”

The Dragons’ leader was particularly harsh about the move to Croatia, calling it “at the very least, very strange,” and arguing that it had “two objectives: first, to take him away from FC Porto without the club being entitled to receive a transfer fee and, second, to move him as quickly as possible to another top club.” Villas-Boas maintains that the whole process was “planned to circumvent FIFA rules,” pointing to the logic of a “bridge transfer.”

In that context, he revealed that the Dragons acted with the relevant authorities: “The only thing we could do was alert UEFA, FIFA and the Portuguese Football Federation to a possible breach of the rules.” Even so, he laments that these practices persist and criticizes “the greed of those involved.”

Villas-Boas also took the opportunity to dismiss a possible future link between Cardoso Varela and Barcelona, indicating that he had spoken to the Catalans’ sporting director: “After speaking with Deco, I realized that is not the case.”

Two years after Cardoso Varela’s departure: “For us, it remains clear that Cardoso’s transfer to an amateur club in Croatia ultimately had two objectives: first, to remove him from FC Porto without the club being entitled to receive a transfer fee. And second, to transfer him as quickly as possible to another top club, probably in one of the five major leagues. That could still happen, of course. In our opinion, the approach taken with the Croatian amateur club (NK Dinamo Odranski Obrez) was planned to circumvent FIFA rules. It had nothing to do with his father’s transfer there. In that sense, the only thing we could do was alert the main football institutions – UEFA, FIFA and the Portuguese Football Federation – to a possible violation of Article 19.”

What did you expect from FIFA?: “It must be said that a young player leaving a club like FC Porto, with the history and experience we have in providing talented players with the best possible environment through our academy system to develop and become major European stars, and then moving to an amateur club in Croatia that has no track record and lacks proper conditions is, at the very least, very strange.”

Reaction of the federations: “Both the Portuguese Football Federation and the Croatian federation shared our view that this could be a so-called ‘bridge transfer,’ which is why FIFA initially refused to authorize the minor’s international transfer. When Cardoso Varela turned 16, there was nothing more we could do. However, we believe it was important to publicly denounce these practices in order to raise awareness that these illegitimate practices involving underage players unfortunately continue to occur all over the world.”

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