A Study in Elucidation with José do Carmo Francisco

I've never met a Sporting employee that wasn't courteous and polite and today proved no exception as I engaged in what was well over an hour of conversation with Sporting's Newspaper journalist and book author José do Carmo Francisco.

I went there to get to the bottom of this trivial but important detail regarding the 1st round of the Junior's Championship, who was it that André Cacito replaced at the 76th minute? Was it João Gonçalves as I had been led to believe by the club's official website or was it Vasco Campos as some other keen observers had stated?
Well, JCF was both corteous and thoughtfull with me as he was generous with his precious time as he slowly dissected the matter thoroughly examining several documents, one of which shows João Gonçalves wearing the "2" Jersey and Vasco Campos wearing the "5" Jersey and then in the substitute bench it reads André Cacito wearing the "18" jersey.
As you can see in the document at the 76th minute number 2 (João Gonçalves) got replaced by 18 (André Cacito) so it's now conclusive that:

1st round of the Junior Championship (26/08/2006) Vasco Campos played the entire 90 minutes while João Gonçalves played only 76 minutes before being substituted by André Cacito.
In the 2nd round of the Junior Championship (02/09/2006) Vasco Campos played the full 90 minutes and this time so did João Gonçalves so it's now unmistakable that Vasco Campos has played 180 minutes and João Gonçalves 166 minutes.

I asked Zé how is it possible that the newspaper has now printed the squads for the Junior and Juvenile Teams yet has not given out any information on the Initiated squad for season 2006/07?
I was explained that both the Juvenile and Initiated Squads both start their championships on the 17th but that Sporting has 3 initiated teams and they still have not decided on the composition of the team.
There's quite a few players trying to get into this season's squad but the final determination is yet to be done. At this stage it is paramount to look at several aspects such as physical tools that the youngsters have and some will be weeded out and get sent out on loans to see how they develop physically, competition for a spot on the Initiated team is fierce therefore it's not yet ready to be announced.

I then asked him how is it possible that 2 weeks into the Junior Championship that the club's official site still has no info available about this year's Junior and Juvenile teams who have already been announced via the newspaper? We were then pleasantly interrupted by a lady journalist (who I already knew from a previous conversation in the lobby outside Holmes Place) who told me that even though the composition of both teams was announced via the newspaper the squads are not considered closed therefore further alterations may yet happen, when the teams are to suffer no further alterations then the respective squads and details on the youngsters will be posted online at Sporting's official site.

We discussed several topics and at one point we talked about Bruno Filipe who he remembered quite well and spoke fondly of and said he was a talented kid but a "Brinca N'Areia" and had problems with his parents. When I told him that there were online stories that Bruno Filipe did not get along with his parents he said it's more of the other way around. He said BF's mother had a stroke when she was 40 and the father apparently is a bit "strange".

We had a few laughs talking about Luis Filipe Vieira, Miguel Sousa Tavares and António Peúgas (AKA António Fiúza) but I won't go into detail otherwise we might get taken to court. I will however share a small story he told me, he claimed a few years ago he went to a game between Sporting's Vs Benfica's youth teams and while he was there he saw a Benfica employee who was a friend of his and he went to say hello to him. Manuel Vilarinho who was there to watch the game saw JCF greeting the Benfica employee and assumed he was also a Benfica employee. After Sporting was winning 3-0 Vilarinho got up very quickly, passed by JCF and assuming he worked for Benfica told him "I have to go, it's getting very cold" and took off, LOL.

What about the goal Sporting scored in the 1st round? Was it a Fábio Paim goal or a Marcelo own goal? JCF says it was a Paim goal, he claims the GK tried to swat it away but didn't quite reach it enough and grazed it and the wind did the rest, there's no question that the GK touched it, we joked that it was neither an own goal or Paim goal but rather a "windy goal" but he claims he had a good view of it and in his opinion it was Paim's merit and a little luck rather than a Goal-Keeper fumble that resulted in an own goal.

When talking about the kids in the Juniors he spoke of his admiration about one in particular, he said he really liked Marco Matias (10/05/1989) who he 2 or 3 times said reminded him very much of Pedro Pauleta.
We talked and talked and unfortunately I cannot remember everything, we talked about Miguel Garcia's sadness when he was first expelled from a game and how he reacted to it, we discussed a multitude of topics.
He confirmed that the stories as to why João Couto left Sporting are true, Professor João Couto was working part-time for the club and they wanted him to come work full-time and quit his job as a Physical Education teacher at the nearby school.
I mentioned Filipe Muendo playing for Estrela da Amadora in 05/06 and he said Muendo scored Vs Sporting at Junior level, I didn't recall that at all, LOL.

The performances of Bruno Pereirinha at "Olivais e Moscavide" weren't a surprise for him who seems well informed and pleased with the promissing youngster's displays in South-Eastern Lisbon. We were looking up an article about Benfica's players getting sent out on loan to Moscavide and other places and he immediately recognized Paulo Teixeira (who used to play for Sporting B during Boloni's time) in the squad.

When we talked about Rui Fonte he said several times that unlike when Chelsea swooped Fábio Ferreira and Ricardo Fernandes to London during Christmas Holiday 2004 to entice the kids (and the fathers) without Sporting's authorization with dreams and promisses he claims with Rui Fonte Arsenal was very up front about the whole deal which he claimed was handled very well and in very cordial and honest manner by Arsenal.

After what seemed like almost 2 hours of a very pleasant conversation in which I was enlightned on several matters Zé told me I couldn't leave untill I took something with me and he was then kind enough to offer me a copy of a book about him (written by Ruy Ventura) and even signed it for me.
I know that the online Sportinguista community has been asking several questions about Rui Fonte, the Club's website reluctance to update the youth team rosters, the Initiated Team, Paim's goal, etc and hopefully with this elucidation I was given today we are all better informed. All and all a very well spent and enjoyable afternoon, no doubt about it.



André