Ricardo Quaresma, a name synonymous with dazzling skill and a touch of football magic, recently pulled back the curtain on his playing days. During an interview for Podcast Geração 80, the veteran winger talked about his time at FC Porto. He called the club truly “different” from others he knew.
It turns out Quaresma had a peculiar relationship with Lisbon’s two biggest clubs. He admitted he never quite hit his stride when facing Sporting. “I just never played very well against Sporting,” he shared. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. Things just didn’t go my way. Maybe I got a bit shy. I felt like I had to respect that club.” His former teammate, Vítor Baía, even had a running joke. Baía would quip in the locker room, “We’re going to play with one less player against Sporting.” Quaresma confessed, “I didn’t have great games against Sporting.”
But then came Benfica, and it was a completely different story. “Now, against Benfica, yes,” Quaresma stated. “I loved playing against Benfica.” He often faced a hostile crowd at Estádio da Luz, the home of Benfica. Fans would whistle and yell at him throughout the entire match. Yet, this didn’t bother him. “I always respected that, and I understand it,” he explained. “When people are a bit scared of a player, they try to put pressure on him. They want him to get out of his game.”
However, their plan backfired. The more criticism he received, the stronger he felt. “They were wrong,” Quaresma insisted, “because it only gave me more strength to play.” He described the Estádio da Luz as “the worst stadium in Portugal” for him, simply because of the constant noise directed his way. “Every time I went to Luz, I was whistled and criticized the whole game.”
Quaresma credits much of his resilient spirit to his early years at FC Porto. He felt fortunate to join a team full of seasoned pros. Players like Jorge Costa, Vítor Baía, Costinha, Maniche, and Derlei had just become European champions. The only star he missed was Deco, who left in a trade that brought Quaresma to the club. “Right away, I felt it was a different club,” he recalled. “Everything that happened there, the captain spoke for everyone.”
The training sessions were intense. “The training was crazy,” Quaresma shared. “No one complained there. There was no time to stop. Training was the game.” He observed a distinct “DNA” in Porto teams. “You see that FC Porto teams during games didn’t stop to ask for fouls,” he noted. “They’d get hit, get up, grab the ball, and keep going.” This contrasted with players from Sporting and Benfica. “Players from Sporting and Benfica really like to stop and argue with the referee,” he said. Of course, if it was time to confront the referee, Porto players would do it as a united front. “If it was about going straight to the referee and complaining, it wasn’t just one person, the whole team went.” Quaresma feels this unique spirit, this “DNA,” is something FC Porto lacks today. “You don’t feel that anymore,” he concluded.
