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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Besiktas is an example for Portuguese clubs


Besiktas which is a Turkish club, recently signed three Portuguese players.
That is two more than some Portuguese clubs, mentioning no names, Benfica! Sorry it slipped out.
That right there tells you, what is wrong with Portuguese soccer when you have teams in Turkey, Greece, Romania, Belgium, England and Italy have more Portuguese in their starting lineups than some SuperLiga Portuguesa teams. Even Real Madrid has three.

What concerns me is that the players that signed with Besiktas were all looking to return home.
Quaresma, Hugo Almeida, and Manuel Fernandes all had made public their interest in playing for Portuguese teams. Quaresma and Almeida were linked with Benfica, but the club looked to Argentina to find players instead. The same thing with Sporting who were linked to former Benfica player, Fernandes.

This all goes back to a simple solution that Platini had. Make teams have to field players who come from their academies like Barcelona, Lyon, Ajax, and sometimes Sporting do.
Perhaps a rule where teams have to start five, maybe six or more players who were trained in their youth teams.

I just find it ridiculous when Benfica plays with only one Portuguese player.
What about Inter Milano last year when they fielded a starting 11 with no Italians, Arsenal with no English, hell, Arsenal had no British even in the bench.
I know that it is hard now a days to find players who are loyal to their clubs, but investing in young local players will go a long way for accomplishing just that.

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