This Sunday, centre-back and captain Pepe’s contract with Porto expires, leaving him out of the squad for the 2024/25 season and leaving his future in football uncertain while he is a member of the Portugal national team at Euro 2024.
The Blaugrana dressing room chief, the 41-year-old returned to the Dragons in January 2019 to collect more trophies and break longevity records, but that is not the plan of the newly elected management led by Andre Villas-Boas.
On 17 June, in an interview with Now TV channel, Porto’s president admitted that he had communicated the decision privately to Pepe, who “will always have an open door” and his future is “closely linked to the club, whether it’s just from an emotional point of view or professional.”
“His continuation as a Porto player will not happen. We have the utmost respect for his career, but the new Porto has a different path and we are concerned that the new Porto will cut wages and costs. This was clearly explained to Pepe. This is how he understood it, and he will make a decision he understands regarding his career,” he said.
Pepe has avoided broaching the subject at press conferences for the team, for which he was recently a starter in wins over the Czech Republic (2-1) and Turkey (3-0) and an unused substitute in the Euro Group F defeat to Georgia (0-2). -2024 and should start again against Slovenia on Monday in the round of 16.
The centre-back reached the final after recovering from one of the many injuries he has suffered in recent years and limited his use at Porto, where he scored three goals and made two assists in 34 appearances in the 2023/24 season , winning the Portuguese Cup.
Last season saw the most popular elections in the club’s history: Villas-Boas ended 42 years and the 15-year “reign” of Pinto da Costa, who, four days before going to the polls, assured that he had reached an agreement with Pepe on extension of the captain’s contract in case of success in the elections, the contract is valid until 2025.
Unlike then Porto coach Sergio Conceição, who extended his contract less than 48 hours before the elections, the Portugal international asked the previous management not to register the new contract with the Portuguese Professional Football League (LPFP) until April 27. This will prove ineffective due to the stunning triumph of the new leader of the “blue and whites”.
Pepe says goodbye to 290 games and 17 goals for Porto, which he already represented from 2004 to 2007, winning four First League championships, five Portuguese Cups, three Candido de Oliveira Super Cups and one League Cup – he was part of the team that won the Intercontinental Cup in 2004, but was not used in the decision against Once Caldas.
Between those two spells at Dragao, the defender won 13 trophies for Real Madrid (2007–2017), including three Champions Leagues and numerous other Spanish championships, before an unsuccessful spell at Turkish side Besiktas (2017–2019).
Born in Maceió, Brazil, Pepe has represented Portugal since 2007 and is the third-most capped player for the country (139), scoring eight goals, in a career marked by his achievements at Euro 2016 and the 2019 Nations League.
FC Porto begins pre-season work on Monday at the PortoGaia sports training center in Olival with medical and physical tests and the first training sessions under the guidance of Vitor Bruno, Sergio Conceição’s assistant for the past 12 years.