Deco moves around Porto as if it were his home. In fact, it is one of his football houses, perhaps the most important of his career. He arrives at the Barcelona concentration hotel in the city, located two blocks from the Do Bessa stadium, Boavista's home field, with a smile on his face. As Blaugrana sports director, he comes from a summer of disembarkation but in his previous occupation, at the head of a footballer representation company, he also had no shortage of tasks, with fifteen people under his charge moving around the world.
Football has taken him back to Barcelona, where he won titles, including a Champions League, and the Champions League has taken him back to Porto, where he landed on Monday night. With the main club in the Portuguese city he made a name for himself, he won his first Champions League, he also won the Europa League and put up to ten trophies in his showcase. He was a triumphant Porto team, with José Mourinho as coach.
Deco was a footballer in Porto for seven years, he even spent half his year as a player with the team's current coach, Sergio Conceiçao. His relationship with the club, with the fans and with the city of dragons is excellent. At the Finca dos Lemos, near the center of Porto, he celebrated one of his weddings, and had as godfather the everlasting president of the entity, Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, and as witnesses the then Portugal coach, the Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari, and Sergio Alves, a collaborator of representative Jorge Mendes.
He always dreamed of playing for Barça, as he confessed again a few weeks ago when he was introduced as Barça sports director, but the club he loved the most was Porto. He declared this before retiring as a footballer. To hang up his boots he also chose the Do Dragão stadium.
He did it with a tribute match that pitted footballers from his time in Porto (Vítor Baia, Jorge Costa, Maniche, Costinha and Benny McCarthy, while Ricardo Carvalho, Ricardo Costa, Andrade and Sérgio Conceiçao were waiting on the bench). from his time at Barça (Belleti, Van Bommel, Giuly, Gudjohnsen, Eto'o or Messi). Deco played a part with each team and the seats were sold out. Currently in the Do Dragão stadium his mark is very present. On the covers that adorn the press work room and in the hallways that lead to the lawn, as in a giant-sized photo.
In 2004, after the Portuguese Euro Cup, he moved from Porto to Barcelona for 12 million plus the incorporation of Ricardo Quaresma, who did not take off at the Camp Nou, but never stopped having part of his heart in the Dragons club. That's why for Deco returning to Porto is like coming home.
