The warm and salty air of Porto, Portugal welcomes travelers to one of the country's oldest cities. The city, located right next to the North Atlantic Ocean, is home to the Primeira club F.C. Porto. The Dragoes, as they are known, are one of Portugals most well-known soccer clubs. The club’s players and fans are always fighting tooth and nail for the Primeira championship against S.C. Benfica, one of their bitter rivals and the other character in the O’Classico derby. The team is also constantly competing in the UEFA Champions League and would be a great home for any player hoping to develop and compete for top championships.
With all that in mind, not only is Porto one of Portugals most well-known and competitive clubs but it is also becoming synonymous with the Mexican National Team. The club recently signed Miguel Layun from Watford and Jesus “Tecatito” Corona from FC Twente and with them have solidified their long-term interest in Mexican talent. It’s exciting for any El Tri fan because having so many stalwarts of the Mexican game playing together in one team is great, and for them to actually get the chance to play European soccer, now that’s even better. Who would have known that Porto would be the team to provide that opportunity.
With Layun and Corona in Porto's 1st team, and with Hector Herrera, Diego Reyes (on-loan to Real Sociedad) and goalkeeper Raul Gudino (on Porto’s “B” team), that makes it 5 Mexican Nationals playing with Porto. There are a lot of positives in Porto becoming a second home for El Tri. Let’s look at a few.
First and foremost - Porto, in signing so many Mexican nationals, and providing opportunities for these players to actually consistently play, shows that the Portuguese team highly respects Mexican talent. That’s not the case across the board with other European teams that sign highly rated Mexican players and hardly ever play them. Case in point, Carlos Vela sitting on the bench at Arsenal for three years, Gio dos Santos sitting on the bench at Tottenham for four years and Chicharito slowly losing minutes and becoming restricted to appearances off the bench at Manchester United. With any young player, it’s important to find a club that will nurture you, believe in you, and focus on developing you by providing playing time.
Big clubs, as glamorous as they may seem, hardly provide opportunities for Mexican nationals to play. Big clubs buy expensive players and are chained to the price tag when it comes to selecting who gets to play. Do they field a player they bought at a lower cost and/or came to the club with less hype, or do they field the player they paid a lot to bring in, even if they are both at the same level of quality? It’s difficult for a coach to deal with. Mexican nationals are usually bought at a relatively inexpensive transfer cost. Chicharito cost Manchester United around 6-7 million euros in 2010, compare that to the $80 million Euros they just splashed on Anthony Martial.
Porto truly believes in the players it signs. The perfect example of this is Hector Herrera. The former Pachuca player has established himself as a key figure for the team and it has to do in large part to the fact that he has been consistently played by Head Coach Lopetegui. Smaller clubs like Porto are great clubs for Mexican nationals to develop and get playing time in European competitions.
Another positive of so many Mexican nationals being at the Portuguese team is that Porto is a highly competitive team that has developed and expanded the careers of players such as Deco, Hulk, Maicon, Nicolas Otamendi, Joao Moutinho, Jackson Martinez, Radamel Falcao, and James Rodriguez. It has the ability to develop these players even further. It’ll be a great team for creative players like Tecatito to develop and flourish. Hector Herrera has had the chance to develop at Porto, and now he is valued at 40 million Euros. Tecatito will get the chance to compete in the UEFA Champions League for the first time and so too will Layun. It’ll get them exposure to Europe's most elite competition, an experience that will bode them well.
Speaking of the Champions League, Porto will be out for vengeance in retaining the Primeira championship. They narrowly lost out to Benfica (Raul Jimenez will be competing against familiar foes) by 3 points and also had a great run in the Champions League. Porto was almost the surprise package in the competition, beating Bayern Munich 3-1 in the first leg of the quarterfinal tie. They would go on and lose 7-4 on aggregate but it goes to show that not only are they competitive domestically but are competitive in Europe. This will give Herrera the chance to continue to shine for Porto, Tecatito the chance to develop against top competition, and Layun to fight for a championship instead of wallowing at the bottom of the Premier league with Watford.
In speaking of El Tri earlier, this all bodes well for the Mexican National Team. Having so many players play together will better their chemistry as teammates which will hopefully reflect in matches the national team takes part in. It will give El Tri an advantage, compared to other national teams in which players may only see each other once or twice every two months. These players will be seeing each other every week, bettering their understanding of each other as teammates. Miguel Layun, Hector Herrera, Diego Reyes (on-loan at Real Sociedad), Jesus “Tecatito” Corona have all been called up by El Tri interim head coach Tuca Ferretti for two September friendlies. El Tri will definitely have an advantage going into international fixtures.
Just look at the Spanish national team in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. That squad took home the World Cup that summer, and mainly consisted of players from Barcelona and Real Madrid. 7 players were called up from Barcelona and 5 players were called up from Real Madrid. Their ability to come together and play great soccer after an extended period away from each other was incomparable to other teams. Many teams only have a few weeks to play together and it’s hard to do that if you don’t know your teammates that well.
Porto has become the new home for Mexican nationals in Europe and the future's looking bright for these players and El Tri. This transfer window was a great one for El Tri. Hopefully it’ll prove to be a great one for Porto with another strong showing in the Champions League and a Primeira championship at the end of the season.
