The defensive leader of the Portuguese team is unemployed as of today. Képler Laverán Lima Ferreira was born in Maceió, the capital of the tropical Brazilian state of Alagoas, but has spent more than half of his life in Portugal. Pepe is 41 years old and sings his country’s anthem with the certainty of those convinced that, as the lyrics say, he defends a “brave and immortal nation.”
Yesterday he terminated his contract with Porto, where he returned five and a half years ago, in theory, to bury his career. And today he will take to the field of Eintracht to play against Slovenia (21.00, La1) without the certainty of a footballing future, with an obvious risk as well. “If I were to navigate in those thoughts, I would get lost,” explains the oldest footballer to play in a European Championship. The Hungarian goalkeeper Kiraly had set the record in 2016 at just over 40 years old.
Pepe’s numbers have not suffered in the last season. He played 30 games for Porto, where he started as a substitute and in November he had already earned his place. He also did not stop showing his worth with the national team. There, coach Roberto Martínez values him as an example: “A professional 24 hours a day, he trains well, sleeps well, loves the game and has incredible genetics,” he praised him. The coach confirmed that the footballer has confessed his intention to play, at least, one more season. “The key is passion,” Pepe clarifies. And some work, too: “The physiotherapists say that I own the machines in the gym…”
So Portugal is arming itself from the back with a guy who defies convention and plays without a contract and at an age when others have long since retired. He is also a praetorian who embraces the strategy of his coaches. Perhaps that is where his departure from O Dragao comes in after a volcanic campaign in the dressing room.
At the Euros, Pepe will be defending Portugal, for which he has been training for 17 years, and Martínez, who is being questioned about his preference for closing down the team with three defenders at the back. The defeat against Georgia, with an alternative line-up after having sealed the group lead, reopened this debate and more so because of the poor performance of some players, such as the highly-rated centre-back António Silva, who was pictured with the goals conceded. “I spoke to him. We are a family. We have to believe in the process. What is difficult is attacking teams that close down and finding spaces,” says Pepe. For this reason, against Slovenia a similar battle is expected to take place as the one that ended with a fiasco against Georgia. The Portuguese plan is to position players such as Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva behind the opposing midfielders and for them to find time and space to create football in the last 30 metres against Oblak.
It won’t be easy. And Portugal knows it: since Morocco eliminated it from the last World Cup with a ticket to a semi-final at stake, the team, already under the command of Martínez, played 15 games before arriving in Germany. They lost two, against Croatia in Lisbon and in Slovenia last March, with a backline of three, but without Bruno and Bernardo. That day it was João Félix, whose loan with Barcelona ended yesterday although the entity wants it to continue, and Otávio who managed without success between the lines. The Slovenians matured the match and scored two goals in the epilogue. Pepe had already been replaced. In the failed friendly against Croatia he did not play and in the third defeat, against Georgia, he was on the bench. “A causality,” he says.
You can follow Morning Express Deportes inFacebook andXor sign up here to receiveour weekly newsletter.
.
.
_
