new faces at Porto

By: j | August 3rd, 2008

It has been a swirling sea of change this off-season for Portuguese Liga champions with the difficult loss of José Bosingwa to Chelsea, the constant rumour of Ricardo Quaresma heading to Inter Milan of Serie A and many new additions to the club. I will post on the Ricardo Quaresma situation in a separate entry given it massive impact on the club yet I feel it is important to note that the outcome of his possible transfer is far from complete.

Returning to the subject at hand, Jesualdo Ferreira will have many new faces at his disposal and the competition is already proving to be fierce. While I will go over these additions in far greater detail with profiles and in pre-season matches, I though it best to get caught-up with six of top additions, per financial impact.

Clearly the scouting conduit to Argentina continues with the Rosario Central’s Tomás Costa signing on with the club. At a cost of €3.25m Tomás (pictured below) is molded in the shape of a classic number “10″, shows solid vision, creative play-making skills and works very well in the counter-attack. As he becomes acclimated into the environment, he could prove out to be a real surprise and a fan favorite. From the great Lanús club in Argentina, left-back Nelson Benítez was brought-in for €1 m, which is tremendous value for todays market. Nelson is a bit of a late-bloomer and possesses good pace along with a strong work-rate. He can play quite physical and will challenge every ball. One of the most important additions to the squad this off-season was Rapid Bucureşti’ twenty-four year-old defender Cristian Săpunaru. The Romanian capped defender was acquired for €2.5m and João Paulo and I expect Cristian to make his presence known within the league very quickly as he is a brilliant signing. The largest purchase of the off-season was reserved for twenty-two year-old Uruguay International (Cristian) Rodríguez who came over from PSG for €7 m. Rodríguez had not quite found his place in Paris but after a very positive season on loan at Benfica, his stock rose significantly as teams seek out a winger with his scoring touch. Continuing on the theme of France’s Ligue 1, Columbian International Freddy Guarín was added from Saint-Étienne for €3m plus Paulo Machado on loan. Truthfully Freddy has yet to show himself of the same quality with Laurent Roussey’s Saint-Étienne as he has with Columbia and I hopeful that the move to Porto, will see his game evolve. Equally I wasn’t pleased to see Paulo Machado move out as I know it is only time before he can compete at this stage. Finally and most recently, Tokyo Verdy’s goal scoring machine Hulk (Givanildo Vieira de Souza) comes over for €5.5 m. The twenty-two year-old Brazilian striker consistently found the back of the net during his three plus campaigns in Japan’s J. League and is known as a natural predator on the pitch.