Luis Figo - A Sporting Lisbon Legend

Bento Quits Portugal

Paulo Bento has left his job as Portugal manager, after a horrendous World Cup. The former Sporting manager has been in charge of the Portuguese Men's Team since 2010. After he led Portugal to the semi-finals on the European Championship of 2012, Bento has said that he couldn't bring more success to the team. Bento hasn't been fired, he left the job himself, he told the press: "I'm very sorry to all of the wonderful Portuguese fans, who have supported me. I felt that after the European Cup, I couldn't do better at the World Cup, so I made the decision to quit."

The new manager of Portugal will be announced in the coming days, it is expected that Carlos Quieroz will return for his second spell, he managed Portugal between 2008 and 2010. The other candidate is Luis Figo, Portugal legend, who has recently bagged his Continental A License.

Legendary Figo Replaces Bento

After the resignation of Paulo Bento, Luis Figo has been announced as his replacement. The Portuguese FA: "We're happy to announce Luis Figo as our new manager, he has signed a 2-year-deal with us. We have full confidence Luis will bring us success in the World Championship of 2014, and if he does, his contract will most likely be extended." The current number 4 of the world on the FIFA-ranking had a good European Cup, having the likes of Ronaldo, Nani and Moutinho.

"I'm very happy that I got given this massive opportunity, as this is my first coaching job ever," Figo has said, "and I hope to bring success to this great nation! We have some great players, but the teamplay hasn't been great under Bento." Figo answered a question about how he will change the team, Figo responded: "Well, I'll be looking to change things up, and I might try Ronaldo at striker. I will also bring Quaresma back into the squad."

Figo has had a great career at Portugal, getting a staggering amount of 127 caps, in which he scored 32 goals. He was also successful on club level, with Sporting CP, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan. The first game Figo will be in charge, will be a qualifier for the World Cup against Azerbaijan.

Figo Takes Charge Of Former Club Sporting CP As Well

A few days after the announcement that Figo was installed as the national team manager, he will now take over from success coach Leandro Jardim, who delivered Champions League football to the Portuguese capital. Sporting had a vacancy after Jardim left for Monaco, in Ligue 1.

Figo was presented during a pre-season conference: "I've been looking to come back at Sporting for a long time, but I didn't know I would return as their manager. And to combine the duties here with those at the Poruguese team, is a big honour for me." The board also talked to the press: "We're confident Luis is able to take this club forward, and his goals for the first season are simple: qualify for the Champions League. We also expect to see a good cup run in the Taça de Liga."

Marco Silva took over from Jardim during the start of pre-season, butOs Leões, the lions, lost twice: 1-0 against Shakhtar, and 3-1 to Volyn Lutsk. The board took the decision to fire the 36-year-old after only 3 weeks in charge. Figo will be in the dug-out for the first time during a friendly against Club América, from Mexico. His first competitive match will be against Paços de Ferreira on the 18th of August.

The 42-year-old manager will have a small transfer budget in his first season: 3.5 million Euros for new players. His wage budget is believed to be in the region of 300k per week.

Goals

- Win the Portuguese Premier League
- Win the Taça de Liga (FA Cup)
- Win the Champions League
- Develop young players to become legends
- Have state of the art youth facilities
- Sell a player for at least 60 million

Notes

As you can see, another story :p

The reason I stopped my Del Piero story is, I felt it got a bit boring: I was 3 seasons in, but still I only got 1 job offer, from Notts.

I'm using pr0's database, so there are updated transfers, injuries, international competitions, everything is up to date.

Good Luck!

very good luck and i will be following

good luck! on fm13 I had a story with Figo at Sporting!

Figo Strengthens Coaching Setup

Sporting Portugal have signed three new coaches, after an exodus of coaches in the summer, and before these signings, they had only 2 coaches. The first coach they signed, is Frédéric Née, a French attacking coach, who signed from SC Bastia. Marco Aurélio signed second, the 44-year-old signed after being a free agent for a couple of years. He is a defensive coach, who can also function as a fitness coach. The last coach who joined was Italian former Manchester City and Galatasaray coach Ivan Carminati, who can fulfil almost every coaching role.

Sporting Present 2013/2014 Kits

After Sporting CP announced a kit deal with Adidas, the club have presented their new home and away kits for this season. The home kit features a classical design, but with bigger hoops than normally. It also features some interesting details like the diagonal stripes running through the white part of the kit.

The away kit is mainly black, with green and white accents. The shirt features a very extraordinary design, with a big green V on the front, and a sort of dark grey gradient effect as well. All of this adds up to make this a very nice away kit for the Portuguese vice-champions.

The official SCP kits for this season

Pre-Season Fixtures Of Sporting

Sporting have already played 2 friendlies under former coach Marco Silva, but Figo will also lead his club at several friendlies, the first one being against Club América. This is the complete schedule of Sporting’s pre-season fixtures:


It is a pre-season of mixed opposition for Sporting: they’ll play against some very easy teams, but also some hard away matches for the numbers 2 of last season. In this pre-season, Figo can show if he has prepared his team for the though and tiring season up ahead, because Sporting will compete in 4 competitions: Portuguese Premier League, Champions League, Taça de Liga and the League Cup.
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captainbrickarms: Thanks mate
jasonvilla4ever: Thanks lad!
AAN: I didn't even know lol, I'll check it out haha

These updates have been insane so far mate, really hope you keep with this as the graphics along with the writing are brilliant, keep it up!

Love the graphics as usual mate, who made the kits? Oh, and good luck!

Sporting Pre-Season Recap With PortuGOAL

Hello, welcome to PortuGOAL, where a team of Portuguese football fans talk about their favourite team, and the results of their team. For Sporting Lisbon, this is Jorge Ferreira, a passionate Sporting fan since he went to a match with his dad when he was 5 years old.


Review:
Figo’s debut wasn’t very good, as his side got beaten deservedly by América. The Mexican club dominated. The most worrying position was left-back, where Figo only has one real option: Jefferson, and he was very bad today. So we advise Figo to look for a new left-back!


Review:
A win was expected by everybody I saw in Lisbon today, and Figo’s men delivered in this match. Although it was against a youth team, the players were very motivated, and especially Montero made a good impression on me. New left-back Juninho also had a good debut for the club.


Review:
Rhyl are a Welsh team, and I expected Sporting to win by a big amount of goals. And the team started of greatly, when Heldon scored in the 1st minute. In the end, it was a very good victory, and Figo’s men look ready for a new season, and all the fans are very excited about the season as well!


Review:
Another match against a Welsh team, and another win was on the cards. I’m very proud of how Figo has let the team play: open, attacking play, and I know it’s against lower reputation teams, but the signs are there for another great season.


Review:
The first real test for Figo, against Greek champions Olympiakos. And although we only drew, we dominated play, and Olympiakos equalised through a very lightly given penalty. All in all, Sporting have had a very good pre-season, and the team played like it should.

Player Of The Pre-Season

I asked a lot of people on their opinion, and almost everybody immediately responded: Fredy Montero. He has scored goals in 7 matches, a very impressive ratio. If his performances stay the same, he’ll be one of Sporting’s big players for this season.

SCP Sign New Left-Back

Sporting Lisbon have signed Brazilian left-back Juninho for a fee of 1.5 million Euros. The 23-year-old will strengthen the left-back position for Sporting, as, at the moment, they only have Jefferson for that position. The Palmeiras left-back has signed a 3-year-deal, with weekly wages of 24k. The player is happy with his move: “I’m very happy to have joined a Champions League side, and I want to grow with the club, I hope to have a successful time here at Sporting.”

Although Sporting have paid 1.5 million, the player is not completely theirs, as Juninho’s agent possesses 35% of the transfer rights on Juninho. The player is expected to start over Jefferson in Sporting’s first team.


Juninho at his old club Palmeiras
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Jack: Thanks a lot Jack!
tallery:Thanks I made those kits, do you like them?

Great so far , keep it up!

SCP Season Preview With PortuGOAL

Lifelong Sporting Lisbon fan Jorge Ferreira takes you through the squad of Sporting for this season:

The Line-Up and Formation:
In pre-season, Figo has played in a 4-2-3-1 formation with one more defensive midfielder. And with the squad we have at the moment, this is how I think we’ll play this season:


Goalkeepers
In this position, I believe we have enough quality, with the likes of Rui Patricio, and then also our back-up Marcelo Boeck. Rui is, and will always be, the first goalkeeper: he’s pulled off good saves, and he’s a very reliable keeper to have. There is interest from several clubs, including the German Schalke 04, but Rui has no intention to leave, he told the fans on a press conference.

His back-up, Boeck, is also a good keeper, but certainly not as good as Patricio. Boeck has played in Brazil all his life, but only in one season, he got more than 10 matches, and in total he has played 58 matches in professional football. So at the age of 28, he’s still very inexperienced, but he is a decent back-up for Rui Patricio.

Defenders:
We’ve got some very good, young defenders here at Sporting. The best defender is Marcos Rojo, in my opinion. He already is a very good player, and not much of a talent anymore. He’s 23 years old, but has already played 75 matches for Estudiantes, Spartak Moscow and Sporting. Another young talent, is Eric Dier. The English junior international is only 19 years old, but he will most likely be a starting centre-back for Lisbon. Eric has played for Sporting since he was 9 years old, and he made his debut last season, at the age of 18. He has also had a 2-year-spell with Everton, on loan from Sporting. Their back-up will be Brazilian Maurício, this 24-year-old has played for several Brazilian clubs, including Palmeiras and Portugesa, before he joined Sporting at the start of this season.

Our right-back will most likely be Cédric Soares, who is another young player. At 21 years old, he has played for Sporting and Académia, and he has represented these teams 41 times. Cédric will have to compete with another right-back: Miguel Lopes. Miguel is more experienced as he is 26 years old. The Portuguese international player has also played for clubs as Porto, Braga, Benfica and Real Betis.

The only signing Figo has made as of yet is left-back Juninho, who has made a good impression on me. This 23-year-old left-back has joined from Palmeiras for a small fee of 1.5 million, because his contract was running out there. The competitor for Juninho is another Brazilian: Jefferson, he is 25 years old, and his main quality is his pace, because of this, he can also play at left-mid.

Midfielders:
In the defensive department of midfield, we have several good players. The first player Sporting have there, is young starlet William Carvalho, who has attracted interest from Manchester United. William is only 21 years old, and he was loaned out to Belgian side Cercle Brugge to get first team playing time. In his two seasons at Cercle, he played 41 matches. Fabián Rinaudo is expected to be the back-up of Carvalho. Fabián joined Sporting from Gimnasia in the summer of 2011, for a fee of 2.4 million Euros. The Argentinian has played 23 matches in the first team, and it is expected he won’t add many to that number this season, with the presence of William Carvalho.

The first central midfielder who will play a role in the squad this year is André Martins, another inexperienced and young player. The 23-year-old has been at the club since youth levels, and he was loaned our for 2 seasons, and since then he has played a pretty significant role for Sporting. Adrien is the other central midfielder who will play a lot this season. He is a bit more experienced, at the age of 24, and he has also come through the youth ranks of the club.

Our attacking midfielder will be Shikabala, an Egyptian international, who is 27 years old. He joined us last season, after playing for Zemalek almost his whole career. The other attacking midfielder we have got is the Portuguese player Vitor. He’s 29 years old, and has played most of his career in the Poruguese lower leagues for Penafiel. So we will really need to strengthen up our attacking midfield, seeing as we have 2 players there, that don’t have a lot of experience in high leagues.

Wingers:
On the right, we have one of our best players. It’s 22-year-old André Carrillo, who played for Allianza Lima before joining us for 1.4 million Euros. He has already played 47 times for SCP, despite his age. We also have Heldon on the right-winger position, he is 24 years old. The Cape-Verdean player used to play for Marítimo, where he played more than 80 times.

Diego Capel is our main left-winger, who played for Sevilla before joining us in 2011, and he’s 26-year-old. The Spaniard played 4 times in pre-season, and gave 2 assists in those matches. Diego is a quick winger who played 52 times in 2 seasons. The second player on this position is Diogo Salamão, a 24-year-old Portuguese player. Diogo joined Sporting back in 2010 for a small fee of 96k.

Strikers:
The main striker will most likely be pre-season star Fredy Montero. His parents are Colombian, and he has been called up 4 times for the national team. He’s 25 years old, and this spell at Sporting is his first in Europa. Before joining Sporting, he played in North- and South-America, for clubs like the Seattle Sounders and Deportivo Cali in Colombia. Second choice will be Valentin Viola, who is a 21-year-old Argentinian. Valentin can also play out on the right, but he prefers the striker position. The promising striker joined Sporting Portugal from Racing Club for a fee of 4 million Euros.

Star Player For This Season:
I think the player of the season will be our striker Fredy Montero who has been prolific in pre-season, where he scored 7 times in 5 matches. In my opinion, he is one of the most underrated players in our squad.
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The_Dark_Side: Thanks lad

You have a good squad here mate...in my career Carillo played very well and turned into a very good player!

New goalkeeper, in my opinion, is needed. I have never had good experiences with Patricio. Just my opinion though

Great, detailed updates!

Great choice of manager, I will be following!

SCP August Review With PortuGOAL

The start of an exciting season, with Luis Figo in charge of os Leões:


Review:
A bad performance, where there were 2 red cards: in the first half a red card for Paços, but the team couldn’t take advantage. Then, in the 86th minute, Rinaudo also got sent off for Sporting. It stayed 0-0, and although Sporting dominated play, they didn’t score. Fans in the stadium weren’t very happy, but they were happy to see Figo back, and there were some positives that match, despite the disappointing draw.


Review:
This time, Sporting dominated again, but we actually took advantage from the created chances. Sporting had more shots than Madeira, and Soares missed a penalty as well. All in all, a deserved victory for Figo’s lions. But again, Montero put in a weak performance, because his goal was from a penalty, and for the rest of the match, he didn’t have a good match.


Review:
Figo’s first match against a top-4 team, and the fans were expecting a win, but it was another disappointing draw. And right now, the team’s doing better in away matches than in home matches! Sporting dominated again, in terms of possession and in shots, but again: no good finishing.

Premier League Table:

Not the start fans would’ve hoped of, but it’s early days and Figo still has the fans full backing.

The Month Ahead (September):
Some real crackers next month: FC Porto in the league, and Juventus at home in the Champions League. Also, we play Vitoria Guimarães (away) and Belenses (home) next month. We hope to pick up the maximum amount of points, but it’ll be very hard!

Champions League Group Stage Draw

Today, Sporting have participated in the group stage draw of the Champions League. They acquired the Champions League spot because they finished 2nd last season in the Portuguese Premier League. Sporting are troubling with their finances at the moment, and the 8.1 million Euros they are given because of their participation in the Champions League will help them massively with their battle.

The group Sporting will have to qualify from to progress is Group G:


It’s a very hard group for Figo’s men, with the likes of Juventus and Arsenal. Juventus qualified as they finished 1st in the Serie A, while Arsenal qualified as the number 4, and after a qualifying round. Celtic qualified via the Champions League Qualifying Rounds 2, 3 and 4. The prediction is that Juventus will come first (they progress), Arsenal after them (they progress as well), Sporting at 3rd place (Europa League), and Celtic last (no Champions League or Europa League).

Sporting’s first match in the Champions League will be at home against Juventus, after an away match against FC Porto.
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AAN: Yeah, Carrillo will hopefully develop to a great player!
tallery1164: I'm sticking to him for now, but I'll see how he performs
Griffo: Thanks mate

Ohhh, my favourite team and one of my seconds teams in the same group! Hopefully you and Celtic go through! Keep it up!