The Portuguese international footballer Pepe has joined FC Porto’s pre-season work this Monday focused on maintaining the winning mentality of the national runner-up, who this Monday begins his usual training camp in the Algarve.
“It is this spirit that we have to cultivate here, to want to win and give our best to raise the name of the club as high as possible in all competitions. We always respect our opponents, but we have the winning spirit that characterizes FC Porto and I hope to give the fans a lot of joy”, pointed out the defender and captain, in the blue and white midfield.
he is back #FCPortoPreSeason pic.twitter.com/yDkql3GYc2
– FC Porto (@FCPorto) July 17, 2023
Pepe is one of the seven FC Porto players who competed for their national teams in June and evolved for the first time with the senior team, as were the influential Diogo Costa, Zaidu, Marko Grujic, Stephen Eustáquio, Otávio and Mehdi Taremi.
João Mário and the Brazilians Gabriel Veron and Evanilson continue to deal with physical problems that they contracted before the start of the pre-season and remained limited to conditioned training sessions.
“Win the championship back? That is the thought, because we want to win all the competitions and we work for that. We know that it will always be difficult, but this year we can return to compete at the highest level, honor our colors and make the fans happy, that they deserve it so much”, he considered, admitting that “he already missed” the training sessions.
After starting the ninth day with a morning training session at the PortoGaia Sports Training and Training Center, in Olival, Sérgio Conceição’s team will travel to Vale do Garrão at the end of the afternoon, where, as usual since 2021, they will train until the 26th. of July. .
FC Porto will alternate the daily sessions with ‘tests’ against Portimonense (Wednesday) and Estrela da Amadora (July 26), both from the I Liga, against Welsh Cardiff City (Saturday), from the English second division, and Wolverhampton (25), of the Premier League.
The ‘dragons’ aim for the Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup against national champion Benfica, on August 8 or 9, in Aveiro, in the first official match of 2023/24.
“The motivation will be the same: wanting to win, giving our best for the club and winning as many titles as possible. With that in mind we always start and I am sure that this year we will come out strong. that we can give joy to our fans ”, reinforced Pepe, 40, about to start the 23rd consecutive season of his professional career.
With a contract extended in April for one more season, until June 2024, the center-back and captain completes his second spell at FC Porto, a club to which he returned in January 2019, after an initial stage (2004-2007), adding 12 trophies .
“These last few years have been spectacular. I always start training at Olival as if it were my first time here. We finished with 10-day practices in the Algarve and we have matches to prepare for a season that will be quite exhausting”, he concluded.
Source: TSF
