Profile of Portuguese football great Paulo Futre | OneFootball

It’s still impossible, today, more than three decades since he stopped marvelling the world with his tricks and smiles, not to fall for Paulo Futre. There is probably no player as cherished and consensual among Portuguese supporters than the Montijo-born winger. It doesn’t matter who you support – and he played for all the Big Three leaving lasting memories behind – because Futre has come to epitomise the Portuguese essence.

The way he played, behaved, talked and connected struck a chord with what all Portuguese wanted to be after the Carnation Revolution. He was Portugal’s first international superstar after Eusébio, and if injuries and career decisions hadn’t taken their toll, he would undoubtedly be ranked as one of the all-time greats of the game.

Peerless in Porto; a magician in Madrid

Go to the rojiblanco side of Madrid and they will tell you willingly that the greatest Portuguese player ever to grace the Spanish capital was neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Luis Figo. It was Futre, Paulo Futre. The out-of-this-world numbers and iconic moments of Ronaldo’s career make that comparison impossible, but it is still possible to imagine a prime Futre on a par with the best version of Figo, and that, in a sense, says it all.

Two sons from the same Lisbon South Bank social and economic background, they shone in the Sporting academy before moving to Spain to become international icons. Yet, while Figo won major trophies by signing for probably the world’s two biggest clubs, Futre opted to join the Atlético de Madrid sporting project and never got a chance to play in the European Cup… after he had won it with Porto, of course.

And that is also a measure of how great the winger was. While the likes of Figo, Rui Costa and later Ronaldo had to leave Portugal to conquer Europe, he was the most brilliant pearl of a squad made up almost exclusively of national players who took the trophy home after winning back-to-back league titles with Porto. And that makes him, perhaps, a worthy contender to that last spot on the historical podium of Portuguese football, right behind Ronaldo and Eusébio.

Gregarious and super-charged

Futre was an extravagant and electric kid from Montijo who crossed the river to train for Sporting, dreaming that he, too, someday, would be able to thrill the crowds at the Alvalade in the same way his idols like Rui Jordão, Manuel Fernandes and António Oliveira could. He wasn’t old enough to remember Eusébio’s prime, having been born in February 1966, five months shy of the world-class performance by the Benfica star in the World Cup hosted in England.

A son of the Carnation Revolution, which happened when he was just eight years old, Futre enrolled in Sporting’s youth system at a tender age, quickly making himself noticed. In 1983, at only 17, he was first called up for the Lions’ first team, and months later he had already been capped for Portugal in a friendly before the 1984 European Championship, making him one of the youngest ever footballers to play for Portugal’s senior team.

At the end of the season, the always outspoken winger, who dazzled everyone with his change of pace, quick feet, and ability to dive for a penalty if need be, requested a raise from Sporting’s iconic chairman, João Rocha. After manager John Toshack suggested that Futre would be better off being loaned to another first division side to muscle up, Rocha refused and then came the man who changed his career forever.

Move north brings glitter and glory

Although blurred, this photo of Futre wearing the No10 jersey accepting the adulation of Porto fans is reminiscent of the great Maradona, a player he was often compared to

Pinto da Costa was starting his stint as Porto president, and things weren’t going his way. Sure, the Dragons had just played their first-ever European final, lost against Juventus in Basel, but Pedroto was on his deathbed, Porto hadn’t won the league for four seasons, and once again finished runner-up to Eriksson’s Benfica. He then heard that Futre was free for the taking and didn’t think twice. As António Sousa and Jaime Pacheco decided to sign for Sporting, he went to Lisbon and offered Futre the possibility of becoming Porto’s franchise player alongside the beloved captain Fernando Gomes.

He was only 18 but quickly understood that it was the opportunity he had been waiting for all his life, even if it was for a rival club. Futre packed his things, moved north, and the rest was history. Alongside Gomes and later the Algerian Rabah Madjer, he helped Porto win back-to-back league titles under the upstart manager Artur Jorge, who became a fatherly figure for the estranged teenager who soon became known in Porto’s nightlife pubs as an insatiable womaniser.

Futre soon learned he had to perform on the pitch and behave if he wanted to enjoy the good things available to the life of a footballer, and he found the right balance between football and fun to everyone’s applause. He was called up for the 1986 World Cup but rarely played and never alongside Gomes, a dreadful mistake by José Torres, whose political worries in making sure he kept players from Sporting and Benfica happy meant he didn’t trust in a partnership that was dominating the national game with ease.

Paulo Futre playing for Portugal in the 1986 FIFA World Cup match against Poland in Monterrey, Mexico. (Photo by Mike King/Getty Images)

European glory

In his third season at das Antas, Porto lost the league but went all the way to Vienna to play in the European Cup final. Futre’s memorable display against Dynamo Kiev, in one of the greatest European ties in the history of Portuguese football, made him an international star, and then at the Praterstadion he almost scored a goal that was nothing short of Maradona’s wondrous solo effort in Mexico just a year prior.

Porto came back from a goal behind to claim their first continental silverware, and it became clear that Futre was now the hottest prospect in the transfer market. Porto were ready to cash in and went to Milan for a friendly tournament organised by Silvio Berlusconi, where they hoped to seal a deal with Inter Milan, who were trying to challenge Napoli and Juventus for the Scudetto title. When everything seemed done and dusted, a man entered the stage who defined Futre’s career in the eyes of the world.

Futre was the star of the show in both legs of the European Cup semi-final against Dynamo Kiev, as alluded to in this headline in A Bola

Yellow Porsche seals the deal

Jesus Gil y Gil was a businessman in the property development sector who had been arrested in the 1960s for causing almost sixty deaths due to a collapse of one of his buildings because of the use of poor construction material to save money. Franco pardoned him years later, and he made a fortune over the following decade by taking advantage of the quick expansion of Madrid’s urban areas.

In 1987, he decided it was time to move up the social ladder and presented himself as a candidate in the Atlético Madrid presidential election. Few believed he could win, but at the hour, he persuaded the influential sports pundit José Maria Garcia to announce on his late-night show that he would bring Futre to the Vicente Calderón stadium if he ended up on the winning ballot. At the same time, he went to Milan and snatched a better deal for Porto that even included a yellow Porsche for the player, who doubted his initial intentions and only asked for the car to see if his interest was for real. Gil eventually won, presenting Futre in a famous nightclub in Madrid, and for the following seven years he became the poster boy of the Colchoneros.

Unexploited brilliance at Atlético

Had he signed for Inter, with the exposure the Serie A had during the late 1980s and 1990s, Futre would have become a global star the same way the likes of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Lothar Matthäus or Jürgen  Klinsmann were at the time. He even lost the Ballon d’Or to Gullit that season, partly because of that move. It didn’t allow him to play for trophies either. Gil was a destructive character who fired an average of two coaches per season, and Atlético were never able to win the league during that period, even if they occasionally finished runners-up. Futre did manage to win back-to-back Copa del Reys, the second after a brilliant display by the winger at the Santiago Bernabeu against Real Madrid, who had just ended an era of five consecutive league wins.

During those seasons, Futre suffered hard-tackling injuries, was often seen fighting against Gil and taking the side of his fellow teammates and managers, eventually turning him into the perfect captain for the passionate club fanbase. He was also one of the most talented players in the world, and his assists and goals were repeated time and time again in the streets of Madrid by the club’s young fans.

Futre’s switch from Porto to Atletico Madrid was for a record transfer fee for Portuguese football at the time

In 1992, however, Atlético’s economic situation was getting worse, and Futre was eventually loaned briefly to Benfica, where he played the second half of the season. It wasn’t enough to guide the Eagles to the title, won by his previous side Porto, but he did claim the Portuguese Cup with an astonishing individual display in the final at the Jamor against Boavista. It was 1993, and Futre was still 27, in the prime of his career. His next move would be decisive to shape his place in history, and he seemed to have done things right until fate decided otherwise.

Tapie’s misdemeanours wrecks Marseille move

By 1993, there was no club as ambitious as Olympique Marseille. Bernard Tapie had done everything in his power to make the Marsellaise the best in France and Europe. He signed some of the world’s best players, revamped the old Velodrome and was able to take extreme measures to guarantee a win. That included bribery. At the end of the 1992/93 season, Marseille claimed their fourth league title and finally clinched the much-awaited Champions League trophy in a final played in Munich against AC Milan. They were the perfect club for a player like Futre, as he would be able to defend the continental title the following season.

Instead, Futre entered the club at the worst possible time. Weeks after the season was done, Marseille were officially accused of attempted bribery of a trio of players from Valenciennes so to help them win a match that took place just before the Champions League final. They were stripped of the league they had won, expelled from the following Champions League edition, and prevented from playing both the European Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup. Tapie was arrested, the club’s assets frozen, and eventually all the stars abandoned ship. Futre had just arrived and had only time to play 8 matches and score a brace before he too soon departed France.

Injuries take their toll in Italy

There were just two possible routes for him, Italy or England, and he chose the former, but instead of signing for a top division side, due to Marseille’s situation, he was loaned to low-key Reggiana. It was supposed to be just a one-year spell before he moved to some bigger club, but the persistent injuries that accompanied him since his Atlético days had left him with no choice. Still, on his debut, he marvelled the Reggiana tifosi with a brilliant display in the first half, opening the scoring and celebrating enthusiastically. Sadly, in the second half, a hard challenge by a Cremonese defender took him out for the rest of the season.

He spent the following season at the same club but only played a third of the league matches due to recurrent injuries. Still, his impact and aura were enough for Berlusconi’s Milan to decide to sign him on a one-year contract. The Bosman law had opened the market for unlimited foreign players, so he would have to compete with an array of internationals as well as Italian stars at the Rossoneri, who had just played and lost the Champions League final against Ajax. His tenure was a failure, however, with the left winger playing just one game at the end of the season, so that he could claim a Champions medal.

West Ham sojourn

Paulo Futre in his West Ham spell ahead of a pre-season friendly in 1996 (Photo: Allsport UK)

His Italy days were over, and the only thing left to do was a move to the rising Premier League. He signed for a fancied West Ham side and famously refused to play in a shirt other than the number 10, exchanging it with John Moncur by offering the midfielder free access to his huge house, golf course included, in the Algarve. At Upton Park, Futre played only a handful of matches before returning briefly to Atlético Madrid, where he ended his career in Europe before a short stint in Japan.

By then, he had also missed a place at Euro 96 due to injury despite having been Portugal’s leading international star for over a decade. He presided over the hard times after Mexico ‘86 when Portugal did not qualify for a single tournament until a decade later and then served as a father figure for the upcoming Golden Generation, which he helped nurture under Carlos Queiroz and António Oliveira.

Popularity undimmed

Futre later became a sports director for Atlético Madrid when the club were relegated, famously signing Dani, bringing back Luis Aragonés and Diego Simeone, and ran for Sporting president in 2011, before turning into a TV celebrity and personality. His popularity hit an all-time high, with his well-disposed attitude and boundless energy earning him as much admiration as his slaloms and passes had done in his playing days.

Few footballers have been so spectacular up to a point that he was even compared to Diego Maradona in the 1980s. Surely, without all the recurrent injuries he suffered from 1992 onwards, his legacy would have been different, as he was forced out of the elite much too young. In a way, he was the last of a generation who played free-flowing football with a streetwise mentality, without a care in the world, away from the tactical corsets that many of his successors would be forced to endure over the following years.

Paulo Futre receives a standing ovation from Atletico and Porto fans ahead of their Champions League clash in Madrid in September 2022. (Photo: Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

Place among the giants assured

Despite having played only two seasons in the European Cup version of what would become the Champions League and a handful of minutes for Seleção in the 1986 World Cup, he remains popular to this day and extremely highly thought-of in the Pantheon of Portugal’s football greats, a testament to his talent and legacy. After all, Futre might not have won as much silverware as he deserved, but surely few have won so many hearts as the young kid from Montijo who conquered the world.