Excerpts from Silvestre Varela’s interview on the program “Hora dos Craques”, hosted by Maniche, on Porto Canal.
Sacrifices in the profession: “To be successful in football you need to believe in yourself and have a spirit of sacrifice, a lot of discipline. We have to give up many things for football. I have friends who like to go out, I like it too, but I have to deprive myself of that, because that will have consequences for me. If I want to do everything my friends want, I won’t be able to, I need to rest and eat well. Our friends want our good but they are not aware of what we have to do to one day we’ll get further.”
Lecture announcing the end of his career: “I was feeling really nervous… I couldn’t even speak. I had to stop halfway through, it was a very strong moment, one of the most complicated I’ve had in football.”
Club I would never play for: “In Portugal? Benfica.”
Where would you really like to play: “I played at the club where I wanted to play and where I was happy.”
Best moment as a player: “There are three moments when I can’t say which is the best. Champion at Luz, the 5-0 that season and Kelvin’s goal that was a thing of shivering.”
The goal you can never forget: “I have a goal against Académica in which the field was full of water, it was raining torrentially. I scored an acrobatic goal, we won 1-0 and it was important for us to continue with the advantage over the rival.”
