“Future? I like to embrace a project to win...”

Sergio Conceição granted an extensive interview this Wednesday, where he talked about the future as a coach, addressing other topics of personal life and even the national portuguese selection.

“I’m looking for a project where I have the possibility to convey my passion, determination and way of seeing a team. I speak not only of the players, but also of the structure, the president, the ambition of the club with the ambition of the region, the city, the partners, the sympathizers, the supporters ", began by saying Sérgio Conceição in statements to the podcast Extra Time, the Arab channel Koora Break.

“ There has to be a set of situations that make sense to me, because otherwise it gets difficult, and I like to embrace a project to win, not to be another one. For the past eight years, I have always won titles, except for these months at Ittihad, and this is how I want to continue”, he continued, before justifying the fact that he is living in Saudi Arabia until today.

“ If I'm still living in Saudi Arabia, it's because I was extremely welcome here. It is a people who live much in football and a few days ago I had the opportunity to vibrate with the selection of the country and with the conquest of the Gulf Cup. I live football the same way they do, with the same passion ", he shot.

National selection and ‘gold generation’

When the topic changed to the national selection of Portugal, the analysis of the different generations was one of the topics that was eventually addressed, since it is common to say that Sérgio Conceição was one of the golden generations of the team of quinas, something that he does not agree with.

“ They tell me I was part of the golden generation but I think the golden generation is the one that wins. There are some players still active who were champions of Europe and won two Leagues of Nations, and that is the real generation of gold, in my opinion”, he introduced.

“ I think this is a generation of very high-level players, playing in the best clubs in the world, but we won't be remembered for sure because Spain felt difficulties in the game against Portugal. But Spain will be remembered because it won the world championship. If we want to grow and compete with the best, and if we want to assume this responsibility, we can not always say that we are candidates ", shot.

Sergio Conceição did not deny that this new generation has everything to be considered a favorite in any competition.

“ With this generation, we're favorites. Our players are of high level and not only technical quality, they also have game intelligence and very interesting physical attributes. I don't think we have to have excuses, we have to enter the final quarters of the League of Nations to win, and then the European to win, too, and stop lowering expectations where we don't have to. We must have ambition and accompany her in the field with work and dedication, but we cannot say that lacks quality ", confessed.

“ Especially because we look at younger generations, like the under-21s, and we see the fantastic work they do. They are at the end of Europe's championships or they are at the final stage of a World Championship, and I see with great optimism all these young people who are appearing in the different training stages, and who in my opinion will continue these latest successes. This is Portugal, not Portugal that had difficulty qualifying for a final stage of a world or a European, but a Portugal that has to assume as a favourite to win”, he said.

“It was an extremely difficult time for me...”

In another section of the podcast, there was time for Sérgio Conceição to open his heart about some more striking moments, due to the negative, of his career as a player and coach, not forgetting a factor when he trained one of his children at FC Porto.

“ When I trained Rodrigo I once had an episode where I had to tell him, the day before, that he would not be called up for internship. It was perhaps the worst moment of my professional life, in this management father/trainer ", pointed out.

“I took a little of what was my day-to-day football in the house. I remember perfectly well that he was packing the bag, thinking he was moving on to the internship, and I didn't take him and I told him. It was a striking moment for me, because I was my son, because I have an absolutely unconditional love for him, and then I had to let the coach speak louder. It was an extremely difficult time, striking for me ", admitted Sergio Conceição.

However, the most exciting moment turned out to be when the father's death was remembered, when he was only 16 years old and had just signed for FC Porto.

“ My father passed away the day after I signed with FC Porto. It was a strong moment, very difficult in my life, I was at the time 16. I remember that a slightly different child began to be born in the way he saw the obstacles, the difficulty, the way he looked at the challenges that were emerging throughout his life. And it was acute, no doubt, two years later, with the death of my mother, at the age of 18, in my first senior year, I was in Penafiel ", revealed the Portuguese technician.

“ During this period there were very difficult times to overcome, but it was also with the help of football and the people I was meeting in football that I managed to get out of these darker moments, to look at what I thought was absolutely essential, which was to be focused at 1000% on what I wanted and dreamed of as a player, and that is how I was building a shell, which for some, perhaps, transmits a very efusive person, something arrogant, difficult to deal with, exactly because maybe life has given me some situations in which, in a war, in quotation marks, we must be determined, ambitious, workers and overcome these difficulties”, he completed.