PortuGOAL.net is a website packed with accurate news articles, in-depth reports, quality features and exclusive interviews on all aspects of Portuguese football and Portuguese footballers – past and present.
We intend to keep visitors bang up to date about Portuguese clubs, players and the national team (Seleção), championing the many remarkable conquests of this football-obsessed country, but unafraid to critically analyse the beautiful game in Portugal. We also strive to transmit a wealth of information about the rich history of football in Portugal.
PortuGOAL.net has built a solid reputation as the go-to site for reliable and informative news and views on Portuguese football, with its writers regularly requested to contribute to print and online publications such as World Soccer Magazine, ESPN, BBC, The Guardian, FourFourTwo and TalkSport among many others.
PortuGOAL.net is registered in Portugal as an official media source with the Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social.
Contacts
PortuGOAL.net is run from offices in central Lisbon.
Proprietor and editor-in-chief: Tom Kundert
E-mail:
Address:
Av. Rui Nogueira Simões, 4-A
1600-868 Lisbon
Portugal
Telephone: +351 965 728 254
Editorial team:
Tom Kundert, the founder of the site, was born and bred in England and has been based in Lisbon since 1994. Co-author of A Journey Through Portuguese Football, Tom is the Portugal correspondent for World Soccer Magazine, and has written for FourFourTwo, ESPN Soccernet, The Guardian, Champions - The official magazine of the UEFA Champions League and a variety of other publications and websites as a Portuguese football expert. Now devotes most of his time to informing the English-speaking world about Portuguese football with the help of an equally dedicated team.
Team: Sporting Clube de Portugal
Player: Liedson
Best Match: Sporting 4-1 Newcastle, Uefa Cup quarter-final, 2005
Worst Match: Sporting 1-3 CSKA Moscow, Uefa Cup final, 2005
Vasco Mota Pereira was born and raised in Portugal and is a co-author of A Journey Through Portuguese Football. As far as football goes, he is a late bloomer and only understood what the fuss was all about when he attended one of the first Chamipons League matches in Portugal. His thirst for knowledge has never been quenched since then and he can most likey be found taking notes from some mid-table clash in the Italian League in the wee hours of the morning or coaching his football team. He dedicates most of his spare time running his blog combinationplay.blogspot.com and writing for PortuGOAL and www.CoachingAdvancedPlayers.com.
Team: Way, way, way past that
Player: Andrea Pirlo, hands down
Best match: Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid, Nov 29, 2010
Worst match: There have been some absolutely dreary ones along the line, but none of them deserves an honorable mention
Nathan Motz was born in California and raised in Texas. In 2006, on a whim, he watched the World Cup and fell in love with the Portuguese brand of football. Upon joining PortuGOAL he covered club sides outside Portugal for whom major Portuguese footballers play, notably Real Madrid, before becoming chief correspondent of the Seleção.
Team: Real Madrid
Player: Cristiano Ronaldo
Best Match: Olympiakos 2-1 AEK Athens
Worst Match: Anytime Barcelona beats Real Madrid
Simon Curtis was born and bred in the UK, splitting early days between the Isle of Man and Manchester, studied in Sheffield and has lived in Alkmaar, Valencia and since 1999 Lisbon. Writes for the blogs Down The Kippax Steps, Monument City, Bifana Bifana, as well as a column in the Manchester City Official Matchday Magazine, ManchesterCity Magazine, King of the Kippax Fanzine and has contributed to the websites Back Page Football, Topical City, The Guardian Fans Network for World Cup 2010 and Portugoal.net as a commentator on Manchester City affairs and the Premier League or as a Portuguese football expert.
Team: Manchester City / Sporting Clube de Portugal
Player: David Silva
Best Match: Gillingham 2 Manchester City 2 (3rd division play off final 1999)
Worst Match: Too many to mention (see greying hair)
Richard Cole is from Manchester, England has been following Portuguese football since Portugal dumped England out of Euro 2004. Since then he has adopted Sporting as his second team and runs the Sporting blog Leoes/Lions. You can find his other football writings at Enganche.
Team: Manchester United, Sporting Clube de Portugal
Player: Eric Cantona
Best Match: Manchester United 7-1 AS Roma, Champions League QF, 2007
Worst Match: Manchester United 0-1 Leeds Utd, FA Cup 3rd Round, 2009
Stephen Gillett is an ardent Man Utd fan who moved from England to Portugal three years ago and fell in love with Boavista too (despite their chequered history). Different postcodes, ain’t cheating. He is still coming to terms with the glass ankles and tight hammys sustained during a passionate, but alas never professional, footballing career. Stephen now works for Portuguese website ZeroZero and, for kicks, writes for Portugoal.net. He occasionally misses players like Glyn Hodges and Jan Molby, and would like to see a few more scything tackles like the Cameroonian efforts on Claudio Caniggia at Italia ‘90.
Team: Man Utd and Boavista
Player: Bryan Robson.
Best match: Arsenal 1-2 Manchester United. (1-1 aet). Villa Park, Wednesday 14th April 1999
Worst match: Reading 1-3 Arsenal. 1986/87. I hated Arsenal. It was freezing. I didn't bring a jacket.
Rui Miguel Martins was born in Peniche, Portugal but moved to Canada at the age of five. He was a late convert to football but now embraces it whole-heartedly. Since completing a degree in journalism in 2011, he has written articles for several websites, most notably PortuGoal, The Spectator's View and Outside of the Boot. His blog can be found at futebolfactory.com
Team: Prefer to remain neutral, except when Portugal is involved
Player: Cristiano Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane
Best match: 2005 UEFA Champions League Final. Liverpool come back from 3 down at half-time, before winning it on penalties
Worst match: Euro 2012 semi-final between Spain and Portugal
Marco Lopes is a native of South Africa, born to Portuguese parents. He has written various articles about football in general, and in particular SL Benfica and Liverpool FC. When he isn’t writing for his own site (footballdeep.blogspot.com), he contributes his thoughts to blogs on BenficaPodcast.com, ThisIsAnfield.com, AnfieldIndex.com, and of course, PortuGOAL.net. He is an avid podcaster, featuring as a guest on the Benfica Podcast, and various episodes of the Anfield Index and LFC Daytrippers podcasts. He is also the host of the Anfield Index Champions League and Europa League Podcasts. He is an armchair football statistic geek and a big believer in the need for technology in football.
Team: Benfica, Liverpool, Portugal
Player: At the moment, Fábio Coentrão, Luis Suarez and Xavi Hernandez, all for different reasons.
Best Match: Too many! But Benfica 4-3 Sporting (Taça de Portugal, 2013) & Liverpool 5-4 Alaves (UEFA Cup final 2001) were great fun.
Worst Match: (quite obviously) Porto 2-1 Benfica in May 2013…
Mitchell Rua is a Luso-Australian born in Sydney to immigrant parents. A diehard Portista, with allegiances to GD Chaves and Marítimo, Mitchell was first introduced to football during the 2004 European Championships at 7 years of age. He was amazed at the way the beautiful game brought the whole Portuguese community to a stand-still and the emotions it evoked, prompting his obsession with the Seleção das Quinas. With football having such a profound, positive influence on his life, Mitchell was inspired by Portugal’s burgeoning Golden Generation to try his hand at journalism, and writes for PortugalFutbol.net and PortuGOAL.net.
Team: FC Porto & Portugal, with allegiances to GD Chaves and Marítimo
Player: Deco, Paulo Futre & Zinedine Zidane
Best Match: FC Porto 2-1 Benfica, May 2013
Worst Match: Portugal 0-1 Greece, EURO 2004 Final
Jan Hagen, born in Fredrikstad, Norway, is a freelance writer, specialising in Portuguese football. His love for Portuguese football originates from the 2004 Euros, his first ever experience of a major football tournament, where Portugal quickly became his favourite team. Despite an early love for Portugal, he didn’t became a regular watcher of the Primeira Liga before 2011. Before hooking up with PortuGOAL.net, Jan contributed to several football journals/sites, such as Metro, The Official 2014 FIFA World Cup Magazines and Sport Witness. When not studying for his economics degree, he spends most of his spare time tweeting (@PortuBall) and writing about the daily news and happenings in the crazy but beautiful world of Portuguese football.
Team: Every Portuguese club and national team + Fredrikstad FK
Player: As a fan of loyal players Lucho and Luisão will always have a special place in my heart
Best match: Porto 2-1 Benfica, 14 May 2013 (first live match in Portugal)
Worst match: Fredrikstad 0-2 Sarpsborg, 6 November 2009 (relegated to our fiercest rivals)
Paul Gellard was born and raised in Surrey, UK, and is a lifelong Chelsea supporter, who got into Portuguese football after his father moved to the country and he began taking in live games there. Adopted Boavista as his Portuguese team after falling in love with the city of Oporto but also likes to watch local teams such as Caldas SC. Paul has also lived in New Zealand and South Africa and writes for websites such as TotalDutchFootball.com and his own blog, ffv24.wordpress.com, where he explores football across the globe. Currently based in the UK but moving permanently to Portugal in 2016.
Team: Chelsea / Boavista
Player: Ricardo Carvalho
Best match: Chelsea beating Bayern Munich on penalties in the Champions League Final (2012)
Worst match: England 1-1 West Germany, 1990 World Cup semi-final. Germany won on penalties.
Matthew Marshall was born and raised in Sydney with Portuguese, Australian and French blood. He started playing football on concrete and often returned to primary school classrooms with bloody knees. Living in Quarteira, Portugal reignited his passion for football which continued upon his return to Sydney with The Beautiful Game, a live radio program which evolved into a website and podcasts (new url coming soon). Proud contributor for PortuGOAL with a focus on the Seleção and Portuguese teams in Europe.
Team: Portugal, Algarve teams in the Primeira Liga
Player: Maradona, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi
Best match: Germany 7-1 Brazil. Estádio Mineirão, World Cup Semi-Final, 8 July 2014
Worst match: Portugal 0-1 Greece. Estádio da Luz, Euro Final, 4 July 2004
Patrick Ribeiro was born and raised in London, England. Son of Portuguese parents with Angolan origin, Patrick carried on his family’s proud tradition of supporting Sporting Clube de Portugal, although his close ties to the city of his birth also saw him fall in love Arsenal from a very young age. Like most, Patrick was never good enough to actually play football professionally, so he focused on writing about the sport instead. Today, Patrick holds a degree in Sports Journalism and a master’s degree in International Journalism. He hopes his time with PortuGOAL.net, as well as writing for TheGoonerRamble.com and OffThePostNews.co.uk, will provide him with the platform to kick-off a career in journalism. You can often find Patrick (@P_SRibeiro) waffling on about football on Twitter.
Team: Arsenal, Sporting Clube de Portugal
Player: Thierry Henry
Best match: Inter Milan 1-5 Arsenal, UEFA Champions League, 25th November 2003, Sporting 4-1 Newcastle United, UEFA Cup, 14th April 2005
Worst match: Chelsea 6-0 Arsenal, Barclays Premier League, 22nd March 2014
Jamie Farr was born and raised in London, England. A lifelong Arsenal supporter, with a soft spot for Tondela, Jamie has worked for football data analysis company Football Radar since June 2014, where his passion for Portuguese football truly began by working as a full-time analyst covering the Primeira Liga. He holds a degree in Film Studies & Creative Writing and enjoys writing about the game just as much as watching, contributing to PortuGOAL, talkSPORT and the Football Radar blog.
Aaron Barton was born and lives in the football-mad city of Liverpool, UK. He fell in love with Portuguese football after being bought a Portugal kit by his mother prior to Euro 2004, aged just 8 years old. He wore it religiously whilst watching his new heroes get to the Euro final on TV. It sparked an adoration that has continued until the present day. He is the creator of Próxima Jornada, an English language website dedicated to Portuguese football and writes frequently for PortuGOAL, covering Portuguese players and managers abroad in both the Champions and Europa League. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and is a qualified teacher.