Portugal Teams in Friendly Tournaments

FC Porto had a very successful Rotterdam Tournament, beating the Chinese side Shenhua 3-0 and benefiting from Feyenoord’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool. The Brazilian newcomer Leandro Lima scored two and, going on his performances so far, really looks the business. The bucket of cold water over the team’s minor triumph came on the flight back to Portugal: it was diverted to Lisbon because national carrier TAP needed the plane to be in the capital for an outbound flight to Paris. Porto’s players, coaching staff and directors were shifted to another plane which was found to have too few seats. There were words and, after the police were called, the General Director of Football at the club, Antero Henriques, was asked to get off. The Porto group followed suit in solidarity and made their way north and home by coach. TAP subsequently offered a thousand apologies but too late; Porto said they would not be using the airline again.

Benfica won the Guadiana Tournament, played out in the Algarve, beating Sporting 1-0 in the final game and lifting what appeared to be a full-scale replica of the Guadiana Bridge as a trophy. It was the first Clássico of the season but had little of a ‘clássico’ about it, the players apparently deciding that it would be a better idea to hack bits out of each other rather than produce football that would whet fans’ appetites for the coming season. Benfica’s goal came from a thunderous header by Brazilian central defender David Luíz, consistently revealing a maturity beyond his 20 years.

The other club involved in the three-way tournament was Real Bétis, who came second. Bétis had ex-Sporting man Ricardo between the sticks, but it seems that he will not be missed: Sporting’s new ‘keeper, the Serbian Stojkovic, has been exuding safety, something that Ricardo, despite his international reputation, could never quite manage.

Off the field, the dire state of most Portuguese clubs’ finances was illustrated by two cases: Sporting Braga are claiming from Boavista a 269,000-euro instalment for the transfer of Brazilian striker Elpídeo Silva, dating back from the 2000/01 season, and Estrela da Amadora have been told to pay 300,000 euros in unpaid salaries and bonuses to former players and staff. Club president António Oliveira said that the debt can be paid off “by the end of the year”.

Less than two months of Benfica striker Nuno Gomes’ salary would get Estrela or Boavista out of their immediate difficulties. The Portuguese international returned to full training this week after injury, possibly motivated by knowing that he tops the ongoing poll for sexiest Portuguese man being run by national daily newspaper Correio da Manhã. Among actors, models and other Portuguese celebrities, Nuno currently has 42% of the vote, José Mourinho 4%, Cristiano Ronaldo 3%, former FC Porto ‘keeper Vítor Baía 2% and Luís Figo 1.5%.

‘Sexy’ would not be a word immediately associated with the relationship between FC Porto president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa and his former partner Carolina Salgado. The latter’s book ‘I Carolina’, published at the beginning of the year, breathed new life into the so-called ‘Golden Whistle’ investigation into the bribing of referees, which is going through the pre-trial phase and targets, among others, Pinto da Costa himself. The book is currently being turned into a film, ‘Corruption’, with João Botelho as director. This week saw the shooting of the scene that depicts the first time Pinto da Costa and Carolina spent the night together, in Santiago de Compostela. The film is set to be the most popular in the history of Portuguese cinema.