Former coach André Villas-Boas was elected president of FC Porto for the period 2024-2028, thus dethroning Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, who had been in office for 42 years, the northern Portuguese club announced on Sunday.
“André Villas-Boas is the new president of FC Porto”, announced the club in a press release released in the early hours of Sunday. During the elections held on Saturday, the 46-year-old former coach – who played for Porto, Chelsea, Zenit Saint-Petersburg and Olympique de Marseille – obtained 21,489 votes. «partners» of the club, compared to 5,224 for his 86-year-old opponent, who has had 15 consecutive mandates at the head of the Dragons. “What a historic evening (…). Our club is alive and today it demonstrated its strength., reacted André Villas-Boas, quoted in another press release released by Porto. During his election campaign, «AVB» promised to hire former Spanish international goalkeeper Andoni Zubizareta, whom he had met at OM, as sports director, and to entrust the football department to former Portuguese international defender Jorge Costa, who later became coach.
Mr. Pinto da Costa, for his part, announced this week the extension of the contract of the current Porto coach, Sérgio Conceiçao. Since his first election as president of the club, in April 1982, this essential personality of Portuguese football in recent decades has been credited with 23 national championship trophies and two European championship titles, in 1987 and 2004. But Porto is currently going through a financial and sporting crisis, as evidenced by its 3rd place in the Portuguese league standings, 18 points behind leader Sporting, which it hosts on Sunday evening. As a coach, Villas-Boas for his part gave FC Porto a quadruple during the 2010/2011 season by winning the Europa League, the national championship, the Portuguese Cup and the League Cup.
