Sporting CP – Youth Recruitment

Following the success so far in my first two seasons at Sporting, I now needed to make sure we are sustainable long term and short term. For the short term I have managed to bring in players who are ready or nearly ready to help straight away. But behind the scenes I have been working on the long term.

The first step was clearing out the sheer amount of players we had at the club which was over 100 with the 3 youth teams. After streamlining them down most of the time at a loss. A lot were offered out for Free with 25% of next sale clause and even us paying a % of their wages.
Now I wanted to start to build the youth teams back up. We have had three intakes so far.

First Intake – 2024

We signed just 6 players from this intake.

Cassama has already become a key player in the B team. Making the RW spot his and he finished last season as their top scorer and assister and he’s still not 18. Quick and great passing helps with his game.

Mahlangu has struggled to find game time due to us playing a 1 striker formation but the coaches are happy with his development. He likely will struggle to make the grade here but hopefully we can develop him to make a career elsewhere.

Pereira has now turnt 18 and has been sent out on loan hopefully he finds some form and development there. Small and weak he doesn’t suit as a potential no9 for us. Maybe with his skill a wide forward is his future.

After 6 appearances for the B team last season he moves out on loan to Spain to get some first team football to help hone his development. Physical and skillful midfielder, I’m leaning towards a Segundo Volante for him.

Sales

We have had our first sales from this intake already bringing in €19.25m. First off Ricardo Pinto left for €6.5m to move to AC Milan

A Centre defender who would have been perfect as our future Libero but Milan turnt his head. A good fee and sell on % and we wish him luck.

Next Amandio Lucena left for €12.75m for Newcastle. This one came as a surprise to me as he was about 8th in my pecking order I was happy to take the large fee they offered and with a sell on %.

Other sales

We further boosted this by the sales of two talents we already had at the club as Silva left for Aston Villa for €12.75m. Silva was on the verge of the first team as we entered the 4th season but he didn’t really fit the profile I wanted so when Villa came calling I was more than happy to let him go.

Joao Simoes then joined Fiorentina for €4.4m taking our total income to €36.4m from selling youth players. Simoes is another than whilst developing well I didn’t have any progressive pathway for him so I took the €4.4m and sent him to Fiorentina.

 

Second intake 2025

In the second intake we signed 7 to youth contracts.

First up Hugo Correia a sweeper keeper who seems to be good on the ball could potentially save me a lot of money if he develops long term.

Peixoto a powerful midfielder who could develop into our Segundo volante long term. The injury proneness is a concern but one to watch.

Another striker tall and pacy, sent him out on loan this year to get some first team football hopefully he can build some strength and come back stronger. A potential to lead the line for us.

When I saw Carlos I imagined a future Bernardo Silva. Small, team player with flair and vision. Right footed so could be an option for our LW spot cutting inside one day.

A towering centre back in the making here he could be our RCB long term if he continues to develop.

Iuri has been sent out on loan. Next summer we will see where he fits in the squad and decide what to do for his development.

We need Wing backs and Soares was the first one through the door where I thought he could maybe develop. His ball carrying needs improving but he has time on his side.

Third Intake 2026

In the third intake we signed another 5 youngsters to contracts. First up was another Goalkeeper.

I love the two playmakers in my tactic so to have a Brazilian one come through my intake got me excited, Will he become Carlosdinho?! Technical, skillful and fickle. We will see.

Full and Wing backs are worth their weight in gold in my tactic so to get another LB in both footed as well. Made his debut Vs Arsenal in Champions League due to injuries at just 16.

We also got 2 RWB in this intake. Will be interesting to see them grow together. Both are both footed and have plenty of development left in them.

So overall in the three intakes so far we have brought some talent into the club but we can’t just rely on our intakes. We need to get out there and find the best talent we can now before they go above our price range.

Youth Recruitment

As I mentioned above I wanted to scout the globe for the best talent we could find. I armed myself with the €36.4m we had made from selling youth talent and spent €35.43m of it on10 youth players to bring into our set up.

How I find youth talents

First of all I build my recruitment team with scouts of different areas on knowledge to build up a wide net to search.

I then set up different recruitment focuses, like I mentioned here.. Recruitment and Scouting

Searching for the best talent we can find across the globe. I put a lot of faith in my scouts. That is their jobs, to find me talent to develop. I hire them to find me players.
So here is who they have found.

The future of Sporting CP

We raided Vitoria Guimaraes for 3 of their best talents for a combined fee of €12.2m, which hopefully they reinvest in their club. With all 3 being 18 they went straight out on loan for first team football at a higher level than my B team. A goalkeeper, winger and defensive midfielder. The winger I am retraining to a LWB.

We went back to Tondela to spend €1m on Goncalo Silva, whilst we have this issue with strikers and not enough space for them I see him as potentially developing to a wide inside forward off the right.

We found a potential long term partner for Gonclaves who we signed last year in Fogaca at Leiria spending €1.1m to bring him to the club. CB is something we are lacking especially as we play with a back 3 so I needed to recruit here.

Our African scouts found two talents for us one cost a whooping €10m and the other €775,000. First up is €10m investment Oussema Karoui. He will probably be a Wing Back rather than a Winger for me.

But Ange Kouame could be the steal, costing just €775k is now rated a wonderkid at €36-42m transfer value! A season out on loan and he could replace Barco who has had Elite clubs showing interest. Unless he ends up shining on loan he could move on too.

Our South American scouts have been hard at work so far in this save and again another talent has been found with an interesting name

You can see why I was attracted to him. 6 ft 4″ and 24 goals ahead of me signing him. Big and strong with speed, technique and finishing. Hopefully his loan goes well and he develops.

Our Asian scouts found us Hatano for €5m. Another who I see more as a wide attacker rather than a striker.

With 27 goals he knows where the net is so hopefully he can translate that across to Portugal.

And lastly Moloi will join us next January once he is 18. A Potential playmaker or a Winger on the opposite side.

While I appreciate all these players won’t make it we have invested in them for no cost with the transfer fees due to the sales we have made of youngsters already. I wanted this to be a big part of how we run the club. Not just bringing youth through but to also find youth elsewhere to bring into the club. I wanted to wait a few seasons before doing a round up until we had a bigger group of youth. Going forward I will probably keep updates of their progress to share with you.

Youth Recruitment Part 2

After I had wrote this piece I had carried on playing before releasing the post and ahead of the next winter window I had signed some more youngsters.

Defenders

Right Wing Back Hussein Ahmed joins us for €3.1m from Danish side Silkeborg IF, Iraqi 17 year old is already part of their first team squad.

Still in Denmark we found a future Centre back in Swedish 18 year old Omar Fellahi for €2.4m he also has broken into the first team this season with one appearance.

€800K was spent on Swedish flying right wing back Staffan Blomberg.

Midfielders

Spanish midfielder just 16 years old Javier Cabrera joins us for €1.7m.

17 year old Mexican Eduardo Venegas is lighting up their U18s league my scouts had seen enough to convince me to part with €4.1m to bring him to the club.

Wingers

€750k for a 17 year old Colombian both footed winger who scores high in technique and is a team player. Wouter Delannoy was highly rated by the scouts.

Strikers

19 goals in 26 games in the Colombian U20 division saw me invest €1.4m in this 17 year old striker.

We picked up another Colombian 17 year old Jose Rodriguez, He’s looking to be more of a wide forward but we will see how he develops. Costing just €750k.

 

I understand how it might seem like I’ve just gone out and bought loads of talent but this is over the course of nearly 4 seasons and Where I had cleared out the majority of the youth teams we had 2 sides that we didn’t have the numbers for. Now we are on a much better footing and next time I will share more about the player pathway and their development and how I develop youth players. Also hopefully this will mean less investment is required in the first team over the next few years as we will have options in the youth set ups to step up. Below you can see how many talents we found but didn’t sign!