FC Porto | Youth Development #8 | January 2019 | Football Manager 2017

Hello and welcome to the eighth post in our Portuguese adventure. This is the series where we aim to turn FC Porto into a homegrown club as we base our emphasis on youth development.

The following post will be an update on our squads as we enter January 2019. You can read the previous post here to see what happened in our second season in charge.

Let’s get straight into this and take a look first at our under 19’s.

Under 19’s

Paulo Raposo

Paulo Raposo’s 10 month development

Paulo Raposo was the star regen to come through our youth system in 2018. He’s an attacking midfielder and has managed to break his way into the first team squad, albeit making just a handful of substitute appearances.

Hugo Assuncao

Hugo Assuncao’s 22 month development

A year before Raposo came into the club, it was Hugo Assuncao’s year to shine in the youth intake of 2017.

Like Raposo, Assuncao has made several appearances from the bench for the first team.

Vitor Ferreira

Vitor Ferreira’s 30 month development

Vitor Ferreira has gone completely under the radar in this series. The defensive midfielder has recently made his way into the first team squad and has made a good impression with his professional personality.

Clearly he has improved dramatically in the first two and a half years of this save.

Our under 19’s are sitting in first place in the league, again unbeaten. Vasco Paciencia has taken over Leandro Campos’ role of main goal threat, with Joao Mario assisting the most goals.

B-team

Diogo Leite

Diogo Leite 2018-2019

Diogo Leite has potential to become the leading homegrown centre back in the future of this series. That title is currently held by Diogo Verdasca and is being contested by a third Diogo in Diogo Queiros.

Leandro Campos

Leandro Campos 2018-2019

We’ve seen this man before, Leandro Campos. He has yet to make enough of an impact in the first team, though his chances have been fairly limited. But it is good to see him perform well for the Portuguese Under 21 side, scoring nine goals in eight games.

Our B-team sit in 5th place in the league.

Having started the season without a manager (due to the fact that I didn’t realise that I needed to hire a manager after the previous coach resigned), it is no surprise that the B-team started slowly.

But after hiring Zlatan Ibrahimovic as manager and Andrea Pirlo as his assistant this side have picked up their form.

First Team

I will take a look at two players who have made a significant impact in the first team so far this season.

Afonso Sousa

Afonso Sousa 6 month development

Afonso Sousa has become our first choice attacking midfielder this season. This will remain the case for (hopefully) a long long time.

Miguel Magalhaes

Miguel Magalhaes 6 month development

Like Sousa, Miguel Magalhaes has also become a first team regular at the start of our third season. The right winger has been a very important figure for us in attack.

Our first team are performing well in the league. Although we sit in 5th place, I’m far more confident about our chances this year due to the way we have been playing. We look far more solid in defence and more potent in attack.

We’ve progressed through to the knockout stages of the Europa League where we will play local Spanish side Celta de Vigo.

Let’s hope we can continue our good progress and move our way up the league!

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Thanks for reading this latest instalment of youth development. The next post will be taking a look at our 2019 regens! Let’s hope we find another couple of future homegrown stars.

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