Porto coach Andre Villas-Boas has insisted that Europe’s super-powers will have to pay huge sums to break up his Europa League victors after his team was fired by Colombia forward Falcao’s strike to beat Braga 1-0.
Villas-Boas and several of Porto’s squad will be highly prized after a triumphant campaign reached a new high in the final. Falcao scored the winner with a superb header on the stroke of half-time as Porto added Europe’s second tier trophy to the Portuguese title they won without losing a single match.
At just 33, Villas-Boas is the youngest coach to win a Uefa club competition and his meteoric rise has drawn admiring glances from Chelsea, Juventus, Inter Milan and Roma. But the manager revealed the buy-out clause in his contract and those of star players Hulk and Falcao may prove prohibitive.
“Porto had such an incredible year that people speculate about exits,” he said. “But we have the highest release clauses in the market so it’s not easy for these talents to leave us. Hulk has a release clause of £100million and Falcao has one of £30million, which isn’t easy to pay. My release clause is very high. I’m proud to have that because it reflects on Porto. You can say that’s a number that doesn’t scare people but there’s not a lot of money in peoples’ pockets. Let’s hope we can keep everyone next year.”
Villas-Boas’ side had arrived at the Aviva Stadium already crowned as Portuguese champions after a record-breaking domestic season and Falcao’s latest heroics brought them an even greater prize. It was fitting that the striker scored the winner as he had smashed Jurgen Klinsmann’s record for most goals in a Europa League campaign earlier in the tournament, and ended up with 17 by the end of the final.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2011.
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