FC Porto lost ground in youth recruitment, study finds | OneFootball

A study from the University of Porto, published in January 2025, revealed a concerning picture about the last decade of youth recruitment at FC Porto. Between 2014 and 2023, the club had the smallest territorial scouting coverage among the big three, focusing its observation network mainly in the North of the country and leaving vast areas of Portugal without active presence.

The work, titled “The Geostrategy of Youth Player Recruitment in Portuguese Clubs” and signed by Tiago Mendes-Neves, Ricardo Ferreira and Pedro Moreira, analyzed big data, cartography and competitive performance to understand where Portuguese clubs look for young talents. The conclusions are clear: FC Porto “develops better than it recruits”.

While Benfica and Sporting expanded their observation networks to the entire national territory - including islands and emigrant communities - FC Porto remained limited to its traditional zone of influence. The study points out that the club maintained between 50 and 70 active scouts, mostly concentrated in the North of Portugal and in usual markets such as Brazil and Argentina.

In contrast, Benfica currently has more than 170 scouts and Sporting exceeds a hundred, with both presenting a structured national network and satellite academies in different regions. Even clubs with fewer resources, such as Braga or Vitória SC, registered a territorial coverage superior to that of FC Porto.

The analysis suggests that the limitation of Porto's scouting does not result from lack of means, but from absence of strategy. Between 2014 and 2023, the club stopped investing in direct observation and started to depend on personal contacts and informal networks, losing presence in regions such as Alentejo, Algarve and Trás-os-Montes.

The study also highlights that, although FC Porto continues to train quality players - more than two dozen reached the main team during this period - the origin of these talents is increasingly predictable. The club stopped discovering young people in unexpected contexts, a trait that historically distinguished it.

Experts involved in the research argue that the future of Porto's scouting involves combining technology and human presence on the ground. Hybrid models, like those implemented by European clubs such as Brighton, Toulouse or Brentford, are pointed out as references: they combine data analysis with direct observation, without giving up intuition and local proximity.

Sources close to the current blue-and-white structure mention that, under the leadership of André Villas-Boas, the club has already started a reorganization of the recruitment department, seeking to integrate data, observation and training of new scouts. The goal is to recover the identity that for decades distinguished FC Porto - the ability to “see first, believe before and arrive before others”.

The study ends with a symbolic note: “FC Porto continues competent in the development of players, but less competitive in the initial discovery. The challenge is to rediscover the vision that made it great.”

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