FC Porto

Despite our defense being the weakest part of the team this season, two defenders got the fans' awards. Felipe had an okay season and became our best player the past season, while Pellegrini were the best young player according to the fans.



A bad season left us without most of the Liga NOS awards but we managed to claim the Golden Boot through Pedro who had a tough start but ended the season in a great way. If it wasn't for his injuries, Aboubakar would probably have won it considering he had a great start to the season.
We had three players in the best XI, I got the MOTM awards three times and our players got the POTM awards also three times. It was our worst season in the league so far, considering that we won the title in my first two seasons.

Supertaça: Not important
Taça da liga: Not important
Taça de Portugal: Title
Liga NOS: Title
Champions League: Round of 1/16

The only title we won were the Portuguese cup but the league was actually the only competition in which we let the board down. We lost both the Supercup and League cup on penalties but those tournaments are not important to the board. In the Champions League we managed to get out of the group stage.


UEFA Champions League: Liverpool FC
UEFA Europa League: Chelsea FC
Premier League: Manchester City
La Liga: Real Madrid
Bundesliga: Bayern München
Serie A: Napoli
Portuguese second division: P. Ferreira (FCP B finished second with one point less)
UEFA Youth League: Manchester City



Okay guys, I really wanted to try to make a story about my FM save and I'm happy that it lasted for three seasons. I tried to keep up the graphics as high as possible, and I know that it's the thing that makes my story worth reading.

But doing all those graphics takes a lot of time, and this save has been one of my favourite ever on Football Manager. The problem is that I have to "pause" my save after every fifth or sixth game to make a monthly update on the story. That's what made me make this descision about ending the story. I want to be able to enjoy the save and just play like 4-5 months in a row without stopping.
If you are interested, I could still make yearly updates depending on how long I will keep playing with Porto. I know that it won't be the same as when I do the monthly updates with the graphics, but that's just how it is.

Thank you for all the comments along the way and to everyone who have followed my story, I've always wanted to do one and I will be able to look back at it with pride.

Finding a balance is always difficult, so I can appreciate your reasoning. I would love to continue to see updates, even if they are just yearly. The graphics you produce have always received high-praise from many on the site, so it would be a shame to witness the end of this story entirely.

Yearly updates would still be nice. Of course, finding enjoyment in the save is more important so that is something you should prioritise!

As someone who also puts a lot of effort into creating graphics on a bi-monthly basis, I know how much it takes a toll on the save itself so it's perfectly understandable. Either way, this save will be based on your achievements and so far you have done extremely well in Portugal (although contending with Benfica's defensive record this year was always a hard task).

We had two crazy transfer-windows in July and January.
I bought Felix Mambimbi from Tottenham directly at the end of the season. I didn't plan to make any other transfers in that window except taking in Lo Celso on loan and Melo for free. But then Leon Bailey showed interest in joining Porto and together with the board we went on to buy him. The owner took all the responsibility for that transfer.
After selling Eder Militao to Barcelona I needed a right back to replace him and I found Dodo from Shakhtar for less than 20M and he had a great season. He was much better than I expected.
I then found Luka Modric on a free transfer and he joined the team but as a playing manager and he decided to stop with playing in November 2021. Before the season was over I managed to sell Hernani, Galeno and Sergio Oliveira for great prices considering that they didn't play at all the previous season. I got similar bids for Brahimi and Marega but I thought that they were worth a bit more than that.
We got some money from those three transfers and I tried to bring in Upamecano from Leipzig in August but we didn't have enough money for that. Instead we got him in January.
In the last week of January we got some bids for Danilo Pereira and I was sure that he would leave so I decided to take in Dani Ceballos as a replacement for him and he can play both CM and CAM. Danilo left for AC Milan and we sold him for a good fee considering he is 32 years old.
We smashed the transfer record for both buying and selling players.

We also played in the Portuguese Supercup at the beginning of the season. We had to face Benfica and despite being better and having the lead two times the game went to penalties were we lost.



We got off to a good start in the league and were unbeaten for the first 8 games. Meanwhile, Benfica had lost some points and we were on 7+ before having to face them. In general we had a good season where we didn't drop too many points but we faced a Benfica who got knocked out early in Europe and could put all their focus on the league. After losing two games early in the season they went on a 24 games unbeaten run and we couldn't keep up with them. Pedro scored 24 goals in the league and won the golden boot. Raphinha had 11 assists, Bailey 9 and Jorge 8.



We had a terrible run in the cup that we won last year. We struggled away to Maritimo and lost the game on penalties which didn't make the board happy.



We had a better run in the league cup than in the other. After a perfect group stage with three wins and only one goal conceded we had to face Moreirense in the semifinal. The final stage of the tournament where played at Da Luz and in the other semifinal Madeira faced Benfica. We went through to the final without any problems and when we saw Benfica getting knocked out we slowly started to celebrate.
In the final Nacional de Madeira looked very weak and we won the league cup for the second time since I came to Porto.



What a season for us!
We got a tough group as we were drawn against Bayern München, AC Milan and Spartak Moskva. But after beating Bayern already in the first round things looked good for us. We went through the group stage unbeaten but didn't manage to get the first place as we didn't win a single game away from home.
Maybe the luck was on our side because Milan, who came first, were drawn against Liverpool who had won the previous two competitions. We got drawn against Olympique Lyon who until then had had a perfect season with 21 wins and only 1 draw in the French league.

However, we were optimistic and we totally outplayed them in Dragao. With four goals to zero we knew that we couldn't lose the tie and there were no drama in the away game.

In the quarterfinals we got drawn against Manchester City who gave us a big lesson last season. This time the first game was played in England and it was a crazy one. We got and early lead but they turned the game around and when the result was 3-2 to them we got a penalty that Raphinha unfortunately missed. He managed to score one more time anyway but Manchester City scored two late goals to take a two goal lead back to Portugal. At Dragao we got off to a great start and we were up 2-0 after just 22 minutes which was the result we needed to go through. Lewandowski got one back but Pedro completed his hattrick in the second half and sent us through to the semifinal for the second time in three years.

The teams in the semifinals were Liverpool, Arsenal and Paris SG. We got drawn against the French champions who we had faced two times earlier in the knockout phase of the Champions League.
The first game was played in Portugal and their team was very tired which lead to us dominating the game and creating chance after chance. We didn't manage to score and instead they took the lead in the first half on a counter attack through Neymar. We had to at least draw the game at home to give ourselves a fair chance in the return leg. In the second half we finally got the goals coming Pedro scored on a penalty and Lo Celso scored a crazy freekick from 30 meters against the club he were on loan from.
In the return leg PSG came out hot and score two early goals which put us in a very though situation. We managed to get one goal back through Palacios and the aggregate score were 3-3. In the 70th minute Pedro managed to put the ball into the net and the French champions needed two goals to get through but they only scored one and we went through on away goals again.

The final was played on the Ernst-Happel Stadion in Vienna, the city and stadium were Porto lifted its first European Cup trophy back in 1987. We now had to face Liverpool who had won the previous two Champions League trophies.
We shocked the Reds by going out offensively from the start and that resulted in Bailey giving us the lead early on. An extremely important goal for us. The first half ended 1-0 to us and I knew the importance of not conceding immediately after the whistle goes for the second half. Despite trying to tell the boys to stay focused and playing a bit more defensively, Wijnaldum dribbled past our defence to score 1-1 less that 120 seconds into the second half.
Both teams created chances after that even though Liverpool were the better team. We managed to get the game to extra time and there were two tired teams on the pitch. In the 106th minute we got a freekick that we put into the box and Liverpool totally unnecessarily took Bailey down. After some consultation with the VAR-room we were given a penalty in the 107th minute.
I gave the chance to our homegrown striker born in 2002, Fabio Silva, to step up and take the penalty. He was nervous but did score the iconic penalty that resulted in Porto being crowned European Champions for the third time in its history. An unbelievable achievement for us and I'm very happy that Fabio Silva got to score the winning penalty.


I now got to add two more titles to the collection including the biggest of them all!


Thank your for the previous comments and the understanding for my decision. I hope you will enjoy the story in this format as well.

What a beautiful victory to capture the biggest trophy there is to win in club football. It certainly puts behind the disappointment of failing to win the domestic season once again. You beat some of Europe's best, in dramatic circumstances, certainly earning your way into the final, before topping Liverpool in extra-time. Hopefully you'll enjoy after campaign in Europe next season, whilst improving in the domestic league season - potentially even retaining the Taca da Liga.

Not the best of seasons domestically failing to win the league. However, the champions league is a massive achievement and one to be proud of. Hopefully next season you will continue to thrive in Europe and domestically it can turn back around.

A beautiful update, congratulations on lifting the biggest trophy in the world!

An unbelievable achievement in Europe! Absolutely fantastic work in winning the Champions League, now 2023 is the year to retake the domestic title from Benfica!

Excellent work on winning the Champions League, but certainly need to improve domestically to wrench that title back from Benfica.

Thank you for all your comments.

Here's a very small mid-season update:

That's a lot better!

The summer window was calm for us this time. We managed to get rid of Marega and Otavio and we got good money for them considering they were both bench players. We spent our money on Predrag Rajkovic as a backup keeper to Diogo Costa and we brought in two Southamerican talents named Thiago Almada and Diego Guzman, they both had a 5-star potential.

We were a bit more busy in the January window as many of our players were watched by the richest clubs in the World. First of all we sold Leon Bailey for €94M to Barcelona, followed by Palacios to Liverpool for €64M and Upamecano to Real Madrid for €75M. Upamecano and Bailey hadn't been in the team for long but those were bids that I just had to accept.
This left me with more than €250M to spend and I made some record signings. We had already taken in the French supertalent from Lyon, Kodjo Bebou, when the transfer window opened. I was interested in bringing in Mbappe or Pietro Pellegri but they were just to expensive. I managed to bring in Victor Gimenez from Atletico Madrid. The Chilean winger is one of the biggest talents in the World but the fee €98M was very high so it will be interesting to see how he performs over time. I also had to find a replacement for Palacios who left for Liverpool and I find Lorenzo Pellegrini from Roma. The €113M fee was very high but I had no choice and since I had the money I thought it was a good investment.

In August we also played in the European Supercup against Real Madrid as we previously had won the Champions League. The Supercup in Piraeus was boring and we lost ingloriously on extra time.



So finally, after a two-year break we managed to become the champions of Portugal again. In the first two games of the season we conceded goals in the 94th and 95th to draw both games. But after those two games we were unstoppable and we won 10 games in a row including the 7-2 win against Benfica. The schedule was different this year because of the World Cup, but that didn't stop us from winning. With a few rounds to go it was clear that we would win the league and even though we won it by only two points, Benfica never came near. We scored an incredible 110 goals with Fabio Silva becoming the topscorer. We were also unbeaten until 31st round when we lost unlucky away to Vitoria Setubal.



Once again we failed big time in the Portuguese Cup as we got knocked out in the 4th round. At least this time we had a tough draw as we had to take on Benfica at Estadio da Luz. We had just beaten them by 7-2 in the league and we played a good game in Lisbon but were unlucky in the extra time.



In the League Cup we had an amazing run and we won it for the second straight time. We didn't concede a single goal in the group stage and in the semifinal we beat Rio Ave by two goals to nil.
The final was played three months later because of our busy schedule in the league. That didn't affect us and we absolutely demolished Moreirense in the final, winning with 8-1.



We had a tough task going into this year's Champions League as we had to defend the title.
The draw for the group stage was pretty hard but things looked good after beating Man City in the first round. We ended up at the second place in our group meaning that we would had to face a seeded team in the Round of 16.

We got drawn against Real Madrid and they took the lead at Dragao after just 12 minutes. But 20 minutes later we had scored three goals putting us in a very good position. We managed to beat them with 4-2 as they got a goal in the last minute of the game to give them some hope before the second leg. However, we managed to defend well in Madrid and the game ended 0-0 meaning we were through with a 4-2 win on aggregate.

In the quarterfinal we got drawn against FC Barcelona, and we had to face Leon Bailey who we just had sold to them. We were the better team statistically on Camp Nou having more shots (19-7) and shots on goal (7-2) than them. Despite that, Barcelona got the winning goal through Willem Geubells in the 50th minute and without an away goal we had a though task coming back to Dragao.
In Portugal we took the initiative and controlled the game which also lead to a turnaround of the result. Our January signing Lorenzo Pellegrini managed to score twice in the 67th and 76th minute to send us to the semifinal.

In the semifinal the luck decided that we should face Manchester United who were two legs away from playing the Champions League final at home.
The first leg was played at Old Trafford and it was an even game. Jimenez gave us the lead in the first half but Andre Gomes scored for the home team and everything would be decided at Dragao.
Manchester United came out aggressively in Portugal as they had to score a goal. They did hit the woodwork twice but that was the closest they could get and we were through to our second straight Champions League final thanks to the away goal we scored.

In the final we had to face Paris Saint-Germain who had been so close to winning it for a few years in a row. The motivation from the boys were not the same as in last years final and that was clear. We conceded an own goal 28 minutes into the game and then we couldn't find our way back. We had more chances than Paris but they had the lead and defended it succesfully.
We had a great season in the Champions League and we showed that we are one of the best teams in the World.


I finally got to add the third Liga Nos title to the collection as well as the league cup!