Villas-Boas sets challenge for next season: “We can’t rest” | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas wrapped up the 2025/26 season with a message of reflection and mobilisation, in a text in which he presented FC Porto as a club of titles, unity and renewed high standards. The president reviewed the clean sweep in youth football, the success of the first team led by Francesco Farioli and the rise of the club’s other sports, without losing sight of preparations for next season. At the heart of it all was one idea running through the speech from start to finish: the club’s competitive identity, and he assured: “the hunger to win.”

In issue 475 of Dragões magazine, the FC Porto president turned the end of the season into an exercise in recent memory and, at the same time, immediate projection. André Villas-Boas presented 2025/26 as an internal milestone, built on results, reorganisation and a culture of high standards that, in his view, put the club back on the path he sees as its natural one.

Right from the start, the president framed the season as a special moment in Porto’s history, linking the achievements to the idea of reconnecting with the club’s competitive DNA. The tone was celebratory, but also assertive, as if aiming to cement a narrative of recovery and identity.

“June brought to a close a season that will forever remain in the memory of Futebol Clube do Porto. A season of titles, of affirmation, of pride and of a unity that gave us back what defines us most: the hunger to win,” he wrote. “2025/26 will forever be a special year in FC Porto’s history. A Year of the Dragon.”

More than a simple review, the wording seeks to turn the season into a defining idea. The president does not merely list trophies; he links them to a symbolic restoration, as if sporting success had also served to reaffirm a collective identity.

When he moved into the details of football, Villas-Boas highlighted the extent of the blue-and-white dominance, from the senior level to the academy, as well as women’s football and the B team. The list serves as proof of breadth and as an argument for structural consistency.

“We were Senior National Champions, winning our 31st title. We won at Under-19, Under-17 and Under-15 level,” he noted. “We achieved a historic clean sweep in national football, repeating feats only FC Porto had managed before, as in 1985/86 and 1997/98. To that we added the women’s national title, with promotion to the First Division, and a brilliant season from the B team, which matched the points record previously set when it became champion.”

The president then insisted on the idea that the success was not circumstantial, but the consequence of a clearly defined line of work. The message is clear: the club wants to win in the present without disconnecting youth development from the future of the first team.

“This is not chance. It is not luck. It is not circumstance. It is work. It is method. It is criteria,” he stressed. “It is a clear vision of what we want for FC Porto football: win today, develop better for tomorrow and build a structure that will sustain the future.”

It is one of the most political axes of the text: removing success from the realm of momentary inspiration and placing it in the field of construction. In doing so, Villas-Boas seeks to give depth to the triumph and prepare the argument for the project’s sustainability.

In the section on youth development, the president was keen to underline the particular weight of the clean sweep achieved in the younger age groups. The comparison with the club’s recent history serves to emphasise the scale of the change.

“Before this season, and since 2010/11, FC Porto had won only six of the 39 national titles available at Under-19, Under-17 and Under-15 level. This clean sweep therefore has even greater significance,” he said. “It is the confirmation of a change in direction, ambition and standards in our youth development project, one we want to endure over time and, in due course, turn junior players into professionals in the first team.”

The president then extended recognition to those responsible for the sector, naming names and roles in a detailed message of thanks. It is also a way of personalising merit and putting faces to an area which, in his view, has once again shown signs of internal authority.

“I therefore want to leave a word of enormous recognition to all the players, coaches, technical staffs, support departments, health and performance unit, scouting, sporting and executive management, and everyone who works every day to elevate the player developed at FC Porto. In particular, José Tavares, Director of Youth Development, for the work he has done since returning to FC Porto,” he highlighted. “In just two years, he has helped the Club achieve another clean sweep that goes straight into our History.”

The president extended that recognition to the coaching staffs and projects he sees as exemplary within FC Porto’s football structure.

“I also salute Sérgio Ferreira, José João and Manuel Prata, as well as their coaching staffs, for the work carried out in their respective age groups. I also salute João Brandão for the B team’s excellent season, Daniel Chaves and Professor José Manuel for the remarkable journey of women’s football, which brought us the title, promotion and an appearance at Jamor that made us very proud.”

The insistence on proper names reinforces the idea of an internal value chain. There is not just one victory to celebrate; there is an ecosystem that the president wants to legitimise publicly.

Speaking about the first team, Villas-Boas identified Francesco Farioli as a central figure of the season. The praise for the FC Porto coach is linked to method, courage and the ability to return the team to the place the president sees as fitting for the club’s history.

“In senior football too, this year had one unavoidable name: Francesco Farioli. He led with method, courage and standards deeply aligned with what FC Porto is,” he wrote. “He quickly understood the Club, united the group, maximised talent and brought us back to the place our History demands. The across-the-board success of FC Porto football is also born from that shared competitive culture, in which everyone works to win and to elevate every day the badge they represent.”

At this point, the text gains a centre of gravity: the coach as the practical expression of a collective culture. More than highlighting one face, the president uses Farioli to sum up the idea of shared discipline he wants to extend across all of FC Porto football.

Villas-Boas’s gaze did not, however, remain fixed on the pitch. In one of the broadest passages of the message, the president sought to highlight the governing and executive machine which, in his view, underpinned the recovery after a frustrating previous season.

“This Year of the Dragon does not belong only to those who step onto the field. It also belongs to those who support, accompany, decide, execute and protect the Club every day,” he stressed. “I therefore want to express deep thanks to the governing bodies of Futebol Clube do Porto, the Board, the Administration, the Executive Committee and all the management and executive teams who work alongside me every day. Nothing we built this year would have been possible without loyalty, competence, courage and a sense of mission.”

Along the same lines, the president recalled the pressure and difficult decisions that marked the process, contrasting them with the image of a cohesive structure.

“There were difficult decisions, long hours, moments of pressure and constant demands, especially after a frustrating season such as 2024/2025. But above all, there was a united structure around the same objective: to return FC Porto to the path of victory and put it back on the road to the title,” he summed up. “And that path was not built only in football.”

There is an important shift here: celebration turns into legitimisation of governance. What was achieved on the pitch is presented as a reflection of a broader unity, with the club appearing as a coordinated organism rather than a scattered sum of successes.

That reading extends to the club’s other sports, beginning with basketball, where Villas-Boas highlighted the return to the national title. The president valued the overcoming of difficulties and reserved special praise for Fernando Sá, coach of FC Porto’s basketball team.

“In basketball, we became National Champions again ten years later. It was a title with a special flavour, won by a team that reinvented itself several times throughout the season, faced injuries, setbacks and difficulties, but never lost belief,” he said. “Under the command of Fernando Sá, a champion in this house as a player and now a champion as a coach, FC Porto once again reached the place it aspired to. It is a beautiful, fair and deeply Porto triumph.”

The president also pointed to the work done off the court and left a particular note for Pedro Machado.

“I also recognise the work of Mário Santos, General Director of the Sports Departments, and Alberto Babo, board member responsible for professional sports, for the effort devoted to renewing this team and building the conditions that allowed us to become champions again. And I do not forget Pedro Machado, a young player from FC Porto’s basketball academy, who battled cancer all season and also became National Champion,” he said. “His strength inspired us. This title is also his.”

Basketball thus appears as a synthesis of resilience and belonging. The way the president describes it fits into the broader narrative of the text: winning, yes, but winning with an identity that is recognisable and emotionally shared.

Broadening the focus to the rest of the club’s sporting diversity, Villas-Boas painted a picture of competitive abundance. Roller hockey, women’s volleyball, billiards and goalball are presented as proof of a far-reaching ambition.

“In our sports departments, the year was one of excellence. We became European roller hockey champions for the fourth time, with a team that reinvented itself, played hockey of enormous quality and once again touched the European sky,” he wrote. “In women’s volleyball, we won the National Championship and the Portuguese Cup. We celebrated the treble in billiards and the three-peat in goalball in adapted sport. This is multi-sport ambition. This is Porto everywhere. This is a Club that does not compete to take part: it competes to win.”

The final sentence of this section works almost like a manifesto. It does not merely describe results; it defines an institutional stance in which competing without the horizon of victory is simply not enough.

The president also reserved space for club association life, pointing to the celebration of the Casa do FC Porto de Monção as an expression of a living bond between the club and its supporters. Here, the text swaps the language of conquest for that of belonging.

“June was also a month of club association life and living memory. We celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Casa do FC Porto de Monção, in a wonderful event with around 250 Porto supporters from northern Portugal, the kind who feel the Club as a deep belonging,” he noted. “The Casas do FC Porto are embassies of our soul. They are meeting points of family, commitment and identity. They are one of the purest ways of understanding that FC Porto does not end at the Dragão: it starts there and spreads across the world, thanks to the selflessness of its leaders who, with great attachment and love for our Club, help it grow and assert itself.”

It is a passage that helps complete the portrait Villas-Boas aims to paint: FC Porto as a community, not just a team or a structure. Victory appears, once again, linked to an emotional base that the president treats as part of the club’s strength.

With next season already on the horizon, the executive made a point of underlining that success does not authorise a pause. The arrival of new signings is tied to a warning about the weight of the shirt and the culture of commitment demanded at the Dragão.

“At the same time as we celebrate, we are already building the next season. Because at FC Porto, victory is not rest, it is responsibility,” he stressed. “We welcome André Silva, João Afonso and Eirik Granaas, reinforcements arriving at a demanding, winning home aware of the weight of its History. May they quickly understand what it means to represent FC Porto: talent is important, but commitment, work and respect for the badge are indispensable.”

The warning is consistent with the entire text: the trophy closes nothing, rather it increases the obligation. In that logic, victory is less a finishing point than a standard that must be defended immediately.

In the club’s other sports too, the president noted changes in cycle, beginning with the departure of Magnus Andersson and the arrival of Carlos Martingo in handball. The tone was one of recognition for the past and high demands for the future.

“In our sports departments, some cycles end and others begin. Magnus Andersson says goodbye after a journey that deserves recognition and gratitude. He led, competed and marked an important chapter in our handball,” he wrote. “Now it is Carlos Martingo’s turn, a man of the house who knows our values and principles, to whom we wish the greatest success, with the certainty that FC Porto will continue to enter every competition with the ambition to win.”

Villas-Boas also dedicated a special note to Joana Resende, closing one competitive cycle and opening another within the club structure. It is a tribute that values the continuity of the bond and the symbolic weight of the athlete.

“Our Joana Resende is also ending her cycle as an athlete, but she will remain with us, now integrated into the Club’s structure. Beyond her qualities as an athlete, Joana stood out at FC Porto for her character, dedication and a commitment of deep love for the Club,” he noted. “They were 12 trophies in seven years wearing blue and white. Everything she won, everything she gave and everything she means to Porto supporters will now continue in the service of FC Porto in another role, but surely with the same passion and the same high standards. Thank you for so much, dear Joana!”

In the final stretch of the message, the president turned to the supporters and to internal unity as pillars of a season he defined as historic. The celebration, however, is always held back by an idea of permanent obligation.

“Thus ends the 2025/2026 season. A season of which we can all be proud. This was a year of achievements thanks to you, who filled the Estádio do Dragão and the Arena time and again, and in many grounds and difficult away trips,” he concluded. “We confirmed that unity continues to be our greatest strength. We confirmed that, when all departments, all teams, all governing bodies, the whole structure and all supporters move in the same direction, FC Porto becomes once again what it has always been: a force that is hard to stop. We celebrated a lot. We won a lot. We made History. But the hunger to win does not allow us to fall asleep.”

“At FC Porto, success does not close cycles: it opens responsibilities. The Year of the Dragon is written down. The next one has already begun,” he assured. “We are FC Porto. And our commitment to victory is non-negotiable. Long live Futebol Clube do Porto!”

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