Meet Porto - the money making machine from Portugal

When we talk about European clubs who have success in the transfer market and are rarely in the ‘win’ department at the end of the transfer window, there are few clubs who know how to do deals. Usually, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta and Lille first come to mind, as those are successful clubs who operate with a moderate to big budgets, but are either creating players throughout their youth academy, or have a fantastic scouting network, which enables them to find talented players from other parts of the world for cheap and then sell them to top clubs for big bucks.

But there is also one club in Europe who is a real money-making machine – Porto. The famous Portuguese club is more successful than Lille and Atalanta, and even Borussia, for various reasons. Two of those clubs had success in recent years, when they acquired capable sporting directors (Lille – Louis Campos, Atalanta - Giovanni Sartori), but both are leaving the club in June, while Borussia adopted this concept, which operates regardless of executive who is in charge. And that is just Porto’s way, but the ‘Dragons’ have being doing that for 20 years, and they are the perfect example of the ‘Moneyball’ club.

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Radamel Falcao, Hulk, Anderson, Luis Fabiano, Lucho Gonzalez, Thiago Silva, James Rodriguez, Jackson Martinez, Danilo, Alex Sandro, Eder Militao, Felipe and Luis Diaz are just some of the worldwide names which were bought for ‘silly money’ and then sold for millions, and that is the essence of the “Moneyball” model. And not only did it allowed Porto to earn a lot of money (more than 300 million euros over the years), but it also made them the most successful club in Portugal in terms of European football. The Dragons won the UEFA Cup/Europa League in 2003 & 2011, and took home the UEFA Champions League in 1987 and more famously in 2004, under a certain young coach Jose Mourinho.

Let’s talk about those numbers a bit more.

Eder Militao: bought for 7 million, sold for 50 million to Real Madrid

James Rodriguez: bough for 7, sold for 45 million to Monaco

Luis Diaz: bought for 7, sold for 45 million to Liverpool

Eliaquim Mangala: bought for 7, sold for 45 million to Manchester City

Radamel Falcao: bought for 5, sold for 40 million euros to Atletico Madrid

Jackson Martinez: bought for 8, sold for 37 million euros to Atletico Madrid

Anderson: bought for 8 million, sold for 32 million to Manchester United

Pepe: bought for 2, sold for 30 million to Real Madrid

Danilo: bought for 13 million, sold for 32 to Real Madrid

Alex Sandro: bought for 10, sold to 28 million to Juventus

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But how are Porto doing this?

“Portuguese clubs don't have much money but thanks to good scouting they can attract good players, with a lot of potential at a low cost, who look at Portugal as a launching pad to get to the biggest leagues in the world: Spain, England, Italy, Germany. Portugal has a competitive league with good coaches and good working conditions. Then for Brazilian and South American players there's the question of the climate, the hospitable nature of the country, the culture -- and the language in the case of Brazil -- which makes it easier for them to adapt" said Portuguese agent Nuno Correia, owner of NCfoot, a Portuguese agency.

Porto has over 250 scouts around the world in countries which are good in football, which means they don’t pay them in places like Taiwan or New Zealand. They also have internal and external scouts, which are divided into several levels of observation, which allows a player to be viewed by several people. They work with a shadow team, which is a set of players who are identified from various leagues, who are capable of being hired by Porto. A very serious work indeed.

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Then there is the sale department, who works with one of the most powerful agents in the world (if not the best one) – Jorge Mendes. Labeled as the best agent he worked with by famous sir Alex Ferguson, the Portuguese is the king among all agents, and is the first reference for Porto, but also other two Portugal giants: Benfica and Sporting. One of the most famous clients of Mendes are David de Gea, Jose Mourinho, Diego Costa, James Rodríguez, Joao Felix and off course, Cristiano Ronaldo. So, if you have good scouting network, a good scheme which doesn’t rely on a certain executive and a great agent with whom you can do deals, the future is bright. And for Porto the future is bright for the last 20 years. In June, watch out for Otavio. The Brazilian was bought from International in 2014 for 2.5 million, and his current value is 25 million, but Porto won’t sell him for less than 40.