Like nearly all Portuguese clubs, FC Porto have been struggling
under the millstone of debt but, remarkably, the side who have won
the league for the past four years have continued to develop
despite a transfer policy that sees them sell their best players
almost every season.
Since Jose Mourinho brought the UEFA Champions League title to
Portugal in 2003-04, the club have raised an incredible €300m from
a succession of top quality internationals who have sought to
further their careers at some of Europe's top clubs.
The list reads like a Who's Who of top stars and includes
Brazilian midfielder Anderson (sold to Manchester United for a fee
in excess of €30m in 2007), Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferriera and
Jose Bosingwa (offloaded to Chelsea for a combined fee of nearly
€100m - although not at the same time) and Inter Milan's €19m
purchase of Ricardo Quaresma.
This season the trend has continued, as a club who have
consistently made the knockout rounds of the Champions League in
recent years decided to cash in on more of their stars. Lisandro
Lopez headed to Lyon for €24m, with left-back Aly Cissokho joining
him for €15m and Argentine midfielder Lucho Gonzalez also bolted
out of the exit door to Marseille for €18m.
The club have also brought in some extra cash by offloading
selling Brazilian midfielder Ibson to Spartak Moscow, Paulo Machado
to Toulouse and Assuncao to Atletico Madrid, putting their income
from transfers for the summer at over €60m - and that's before the
reported €30m sale of defender Bruno Alves, who the club (for once)
appear very keen to keep hold off.
So why are such a successful side made to rebuild their squad
every year? Well, for two reasons. Firstly, the club are saddled
with debt and need to raise money to continue to pay for the
construction of their new stadium - at a cost of €100m since its
inauguration in November 2003 (minus interest payments, of course)
- and the wage bill they have amassed with the procurement of a
large number of squad players.
Secondly, it is a philosophy that has brought the club great
success (as well as money) and, while Porto president Pinto da
Costa has received some criticism for his financial handling of the
club, you cannot argue with the facts.
The Porto supremo, at the forefront of the club for over 25
years, has been a driving force in bringing the club through as
title contenders in a league that was dominated by Sporting and
Benfica pre-1984 and the Dragons have won 13 out of the last 19
Portuguese league titles. They have also landed numerous Portuguese
Cups, Super Cups and a UEFA Cup in more than a decade of dominance;
while they are one of the best supported clubs around with the
average attendance at the Dragon Stadium approximately 38,000.
Da Costa has ensured that the club's transfer policy has built
the foundations of a squad that is not over-reliant on any one
player. Lisandro and Lucho were important, no doubt, but they are
replaceable and the Porto board appear to have filled the gaps
well.
Argentinean midfielder Diego Valeri has joined on loan from
Lanus, while they have so far landed more South American talent in
Fernando Belluschi from Olympiakos for a fee of €5m, Uruguayan
defender Alvaro Pereira from Cluj for a fee of €4.5m and Brazilian
defender Maicon from Cruzeiro.
The club thrive on picking up lesser known players for a small
fee and then selling them on once they have made their mark. But
there is an extra dimension to their scouting and it relies on the
complicated way that some players' rights are owned by an agency,
rather than a club.
Porto have found success in luring South American talent by
buying up a percentage of their rights and then completing the deal
years later. Lucho was signed from River Plate in 2005 with Porto
sharing the ownership with Global Soccer Agencies after paying
€4.6m to purchase half of the rights and spending €6.65m to seal
the deal two years later. Such a deal sometimes allows a modest
transfer fee to be paid (if any at all), but also gives the club a
fall-back position if the player doesn't settle.
This summer, the club bought 60% of Radamel Falcao's transfer
rights for €3.9m from River and will have high hopes for the
23-year-old Colombian forward, who is viewed as one of the world's
top prospects after netting 45 goals in 110 games for River. It is
something of a coup for them to have beaten off competition from a
player who was once attracting the interest of Manchester United
and Arsenal, but it is easy to see why he may have wanted to
move.
Porto cannot offer the wages that other major European clubs
can, but are an attractive prospect for South American players as
they get Champions League football, regularly win silverware and,
perhaps most importantly, provide a stepping stone for them to gain
an EU passport. Such a move grants players the chance to move to
other European clubs, without the problems of gaining work permits
and visas - making them vastly more appealing to potential suitors
further down the line.
While Porto continue to gain critics for their approach, it is
hard to argue against what they are doing. A club with ambition,
but not an overinflated sense of where they should be in European
football, the Portuguese side will continue to make a profit on
their star players, while they bring new ones through to replace
them at bargain prices.
A model of how mid-ranging European clubs should be run, the
Dragons might initially cringe at the prospect of another season of
rebuilding but, if they continue to win trophies, then another
summer of upheaval will quickly be forgotten.