Club Profile - Porto
Futebol Clube do Porto, commonly known as Porto or FCP, is a Portuguese football club based in Porto. It was established in 1893, which makes it one of the oldest clubs in Portugal as well as in Europe. Porto was turned into a Public limited company in 1998
for its efficient functioning. Porto is one of the three big football clubs in Portugal; the other two being S.L. Benfica and Sporting C.P. Due to their success in Portuguese football, the other two clubs are also Porto's biggest title rivals every year.
The club is housed at the Estadio das Dragao (Stadium of the Dragon), which replaced their old stadium, Estadio das Antas, in 2003. The new stadium was built for the European Championships held in Portugal in 2004. It seats over 50,000 spectators and its
name was derived from the dragon in F.C. Porto's crest. Os Dragöes or ‘The Dragons’ is also the nickname given to Porto by its supporters in Portugal.
In the 41 year spell between 1940 and 1982, Porto underperformed, much to the annoyance of their fans. They only managed to win 5 titles during this time, and were in danger of disappearing into obscurity. But, their revival started in the 80s, which led
to them becoming the most successful club in Portugal. One of the reasons for this improvement was the club’s new President, Jorge Nuno de Lima Pinto da Costa, who took over in 1982 and brought with him Jose Maria Pedroto to manage the squad.
Following this change, Porto won 19 Domestic League titles, 11 Portuguese Cups, 16 Portuguese Super Cups, one European Cup, one Champions League, one UEFA Cup, one European Super Cup and two Intercontinental Cups.
The UEFA Cup and Champions League successes came in consecutive years in 2003 and 2004 under the guidance of one of football world's best known coaches, Jose Mourinho. Their victories were unexpected, which put the spotlight on players like Deco, Ricardo
Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira, as they became superstars overnight. Now, the biggest clubs in the world were after these players and Mourinho. After the 2004 Champions League success, there was an exodus, as a number of the most important players left, along
with the manager Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese coach left for Chelsea and took a number of players with him.
Currently, Porto are managed by Andre Villas Boas. They finished a disappointing 3rd in the Portuguese Liga last season, and will be looking to improve their performance significantly in this season. With players like Falcao, Moutinho, Cristian
Rodriguez and Bruno Alves, they have the talent necessary to once again take the Portuguese title and also perform well in Europe.
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