Villas-Boas reveals toughest signing: “Done in 24 hours” | OneFootball

“It’s an area that gives me a lot of wrinkles, clearly.” That is how André Villas-Boas describes the transfer market as he explains, in an interview with the YouTube channel ‘Primeiro Toque’, how FC Porto handles this process. And he goes even further: the Dragons’ president speaks about what he considers to have been the most difficult signing, concluding: “All of the 2025/26 ones have a very specific story.”

How FC Porto moves in the market: “The buying processes normally start by… looking at the foundation, with scouting lists. So, a scouting structure that works to serve an organization or to serve the club properly, employed by the club itself. That scouting department has been heavily supported by new technologies and new tools, including data handling, data management, artificial intelligence and data filtering. So, from those scouting structures come lists, lists of the best players by position, and then, together with the coach or not, by decision of the structure itself, decisions are made about the players we think are interesting to sign. From there, the first contacts are made. Normally it is with the agents, because clubs cannot directly contact players, so that is the rule we like to protect ourselves with, and we use the figure of the agent, hence their importance in the world football landscape today. So, through the agent, you more or less find out the conditions, first the interest, right, of the other person in joining the club, so, sharing the vision of the project, whether he wants it or not, or whether there is courtship or a marriage, let’s say, in the future. Then come the financial conditions for the player and, unfortunately, for the agent as well, who is also doing his job – some are more expensive than others, but if there is certainly something we are proud of, it is having brought the commissions involved in negotiations in which FC Porto was involved down to acceptable levels. So, from there, when there is a common body of interests, negotiations with the club begin, which can happen directly or through the agent as well, and then it is a battlefield. It is about knowing whether the club wants to sell, how much they want to sell for, whether they want to keep future capital gains – that is, many people understand that FC Porto is also a selling club and a vehicle for creating value, and from there the other club may want to keep future capital gains in the event of a future transfer. So, once an agreement is reached, that is basically it. And it is the reverse process in sales as well: FC Porto has a lot of talent at its disposal, it is known and wants to remain known as a great negotiator and a great seller. So, we know we have great talent at our disposal; we do not sell it at any price. What we… above all, the FC Porto brand has to be one where the talent that leaves FC Porto has to win in the best leagues in Europe, and that is a brand we want to preserve. So, we also do not want to tarnish that brand by selling just for the sake of selling, and tricking or deceiving the club that takes our talents. That brand-building is important, it is something we are proud of. So, we are a difficult club, we sell talent well, but we are a difficult club to negotiate with.”

The ‘headaches’: “It’s an area that gives me a lot of wrinkles, clearly. If there is one thing that is already damaging my health and physical appearance, it is precisely transfers, aside from all the stress of matches and high-level competition. (…) Transfers are one of the problems, because there are many great talents that we identify and really want to have, and then they do not want to come, or they have other clubs, and all the work we did goes down the drain. That is why it is very important to work in advance. That is why this 25/26 season, in terms of signings, was a success, because we spent hours and hours and hours in meetings to make FC Porto even more attractive to many talents. And that is why we brought together some extraordinary talents in this 25/26 team. So, it was the result of many meetings over months, a lot of convincing, many tactics, many secret meetings too… and it is satisfying, but it takes a lot out of you, it takes a lot out of a person.”

The most difficult signing, which ended with the pleasure of “I was starting to think this wouldn’t happen”: “Samu’s, without a doubt. It was a deal we closed in 24 hours. He was one of those talents who simply could not be on the market. So, that story is very curious because his transfer to Chelsea fell through, with Chelsea claiming injuries the player did not have – in other words, injuries that were not confirmed by our medical department in medical examinations or were downplayed in medical examinations. So, when his transfer to Chelsea collapsed, the player was left on the market and, once he was on the market, it took just 24 hours for us to sit down – we quickly sat down with the player in Madrid, at Atlético Madrid’s headquarters – and reach an agreement with At. Madrid without anyone knowing. So, it was something that made us proud, being able to attract to FC Porto one of the greatest talents in world football, and someone in whom we place great hopes for the future and who at this moment has disappointed no one. He is a player full of passion and emotion, besides all the talent he has, which is unique and unmatched. The others… all of the 25/26 ones have a very specific story. Froholdt’s as well, because his move to the Bundesliga did not end up happening, but the truth is that it had been agreed in principle, that is, it was agreed after FC Porto had already been there in Copenhagen with his family and his agent. Then, as a result of the negotiations between that Bundesliga club and Copenhagen, there was no agreement, and FC Porto had a very short window of time in which it could act, it acted and brought the player here. So, normally this player should not be here, he should be in the other league. And then, well, all the others. Kiwior’s was also very special because he was a highly talented Premier League player, with a lot of interest from many clubs, including major European clubs, and someone who loved the Porto project, what it meant, and it was another transfer we were only able to complete on deadline day because it was tied to a player moving to Arsenal, which in turn freed up Kiwior for FC Porto. So, they all tell different stories, different battles that make us proud. One thing is certain and I cannot deny it: a photo like this attracts a lot of people – FC Porto is the domestic club with the most titles in football, it is the domestic club with the most international football titles in Portuguese football, it has a history without equal and without precedent, and there are many people who see a photo like this and want to come to FC Porto.”

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