FC Porto: President Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa as Avenger of the North

FC Porto is the port city’s great passion. A long night began when the game against Sporting Portugal ended 2-0 half an hour before midnight. Porto was once again a champion, for the second time in the past three years. And for the 22nd time since 1982. The year when Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa took over the presidency.

He is now 82 years old and has just been confirmed for a further four years in the June general election with a comfortable two-thirds majority. Pinto da Costa is by far the most durable president in top international football. As it is the most successful: the championship, secured two matchdays before the end of the season, is the 60th title of its era. When the stars’ cars were said goodbye to hundreds of fans at the stadium after the decisive victory last week in Tondela, Pinto da Costa got stuck in the crowd longest. The followers paid homage to him like a god.

At least he is actually sometimes called “Pope” by the fans, and he was at the wheel himself – not a matter of course at 82. But the age is relative for him anyway. His current girlfriend, banker Cláudia Campo, is half his age, and even that is nothing compared to the last of his four marriages for the time being: Brazilian Fernanda Miranda was 50 years younger.

Portugal’s football is riddled with corruption

However, it was also a woman who almost nearly killed him: ex-girlfriend Carolina Salgado became the key witness in the “Apito Dourado” (golden whistle) scandal after the separation through disclosures in her autobiography. It was about referees who were allegedly bribed with prostitutes and dream trips. Unlike city rival Boavista, who was sentenced to forced relegation, FC Porto and Pinto da Costa got off lightly. He was acquitted in court in 2009; it remained with a temporary two-year suspension by the league association, which was later canceled by an ordinary court.

He has also survived other affairs in Portugal’s notoriously corruption-prone football. Pinto da Costa was last among the suspects in a major raid on suspicion of tax evasion and money laundering during player transfers (“Operation Offside”) in early March. A total of 77 searches were carried out, also at the other major clubs in the country or the company of agent king Jorge Mendes. FC Porto denied all allegations. “As always, we work with the judiciary,” it said routinely.

Members and fans put Pinto da Costa’s services to such episodes – every means seems to be right against the privileged capitals from Lisbon. As the patriarch said when he re-inaugurated: “A strong FC Porto is very important for Portugal, because unfortunately it is one of the few strongholds in the north against centralism.” Football as a parable of society; all allegations can be quickly dismissed as targeted attempts to discredit. “We will continue to fight everything and everyone, that has always been our way, which is why FC Porto is so much different today than it was on April 25, 1974,” said Pinto da Costa. The reference refers to the Carnation Revolution Day against Portugal’s decades-long dictatorship.

Porto more successful than Benfica and Sporting together

The Avenger from the North is his prime role, and he is undoubtedly entitled to it. When the trained bank teller and lifelong postage fan was named football director in 1976 after previous roles in the roller hockey and boxing department, Porto had not won the league in 17 years. The rivalry with Benfica, which is toxic today, did not yet exist: it was not taken seriously enough, it was all about Benfica’s derby with Sporting.

Since then, Porto has not only won more championships than the two Lisbon clubs together, doing a series of five titles between 1995 and 1999 that the proud Benfica still lacks. The showcases also adorn four European trophies. Only Real Madrid and Barcelona (24 times each) participated in the Champions League, which was founded in 1992, more often than Porto (23, like Bayern).

Pinto da Costa always knew how to adapt to the times. With the globalization of football, he defined Porto as a training club at the interface between South America and Europe. Talents were scouted young, competently developed and expensive to be transferred as finished stars.

His hand for coaches was also beneficial. In January 2002, he signed a young man named José Mourinho, who won the Uefa Cup in 2003 and the Champions League in 2004. He repeated the coup in 2010 with the then 32-year-old André Villas-Boas: straight away there was the title in the Europa League. As incredible as it sounds, FC Porto has won more European Cups than the entire Bundesliga in the current millennium.

Conçeicão follows Mourinho and Villas-Boas

For the time being, Pinto da Costa’s last stroke of luck was Sérgio Conçeicão, whom he brought back home from Nantes in 2017. Even if Porto is no longer internationally eligible for the title – the stars are moving too quickly into the big leagues in the increasingly one-sided football business – and suffering from tight cash registers, the coach nevertheless managed to end a small intermediate era of Benfica. Conçeicão, who scored three goals against Germany at the 2000 European Championship, can now win his first double for Porto since 2011 with his team in the cup final against Benfica on August 1st.

The large banner that the Porto Ultras had stretched over their empty fan block for the game against Sporting did not show the coach. And no player either. An old man with glasses was pictured and a sea of ​​trophies around him. Nuno Pinto da Costa, the Eternal Constant, the Pope of Porto.