″ He had a great career, but in Porto he started in earnest

A new episode of “Ironias do Destino” made Porto president Bento da Costa back to 2004, the year of winning the Champions League

Keep Team 2003: “When the season ended, our players were in great demand, as usual, and there were many suggestions, even the coach was harassed. I had a conversation with some of the players and made them see that if we kept the whole group, it was possible. I even took a risk and committed. With Deco for example, “Don’t leave now, you will leave for the year as European champion. Instead of having clubs in the background and I want you to go there, he will have the big clubs. Because obviously the cornerstone player in a team that won European titles two years in a row has to be a great player. We made a deal and both the coach and the players decided to stick together and then attacked the champions seriously.”

Convince Deku to stay: “Everyone understood that we could achieve something for so many was unimaginable, but what we thought was a common strength. When I spoke with Deco, who had several interested clubs and wanted to leave, I told him ‘Hey Deco two for a year’ How will the European champions have great clubs? “He saw my convictions and said: ‘The president is convincing me, so I will stay.’ He was the bedrock and the sure thing is that he went to Barcelona and the other club that was in the fight was Bayern Munich, something that wouldn’t have happened if they had left a year ago. He knew how to wait and had a career. A wonderful “.

Liabilities value: “People underestimated Monaco a little bit, but Monaco, to get to the final, had to eliminate Real Madrid. They underestimated A Coruña, but A Coruña only reached the semi-finals because they beat Milan 4-1. They made it. Great teams They weren’t the loudest, but as teams they had more than enough value to eliminate Milan and Real Madrid.”

Message before the match: “The team played with their eyes closed, the coach made the most of the players and they believed in each other so much that we were convinced we would win. Before the game I spoke to the team and I just said this ‘You don’t play final, you win.'” There was no need to say anything else. Mourinho even said that after that everything was said and we would win. When the team got on the bus, they were convinced that they were going to win and they won.”

In tune with Jose Mourinho: “We talked a lot. He knew what I was thinking, we both wanted to win. The understanding between the two was always very easy. It was the start of a great international career for him, from Chelsea to Inter, where he was also European champions Manchester… He had a great career. But at FC Porto he started it in earnest.”