8 February 2007, by Tom Kundert

Quaresma happy to stay at Porto

Winger expects champions to snap out of poor run

Porto’s talented winger Ricardo Quaresma is on a high following his excellent showing for the national team earlier this week.

The 23-year-old insists is not looking for a move abroad amid renewed transfer rumours, and has admitted the Portuguese champions have to work hard to snap out of their current poor run.

Portuguese football fans have long been treated to the wonderful array of skills contained in the twinkling feet of Quaresma, with the winger producing outstanding displays week in week out for the Dragons over the past 18 months.

But as Portugal defeated Brazil on Tuesday night many among the 60,000 fans packed into Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium in London, not to mention the global TV audience (the match was covered by stations from 50 countries), caught their first glimpse of the former Sporting man in action.

Following disappointing displays for the national side in his few previous appearances, Scolari had publicly urged the winger to play like he plays for Porto when donning a Portugal shirt – something he came close to achieving on Tuesday.

Happy at Porto

Inevitably, rumours have again surfaced about a move abroad, but Quaresma appears in no rush to leave the Portuguese champions. “I’m doing well at FC Porto and it’s only FC Porto I’m thinking about,” he said.

“Will they let me leave?” he laughed when asked by a reporter after the match. “I don’t know. But I’m happy in Porto and I want to stay.”

Quaresma also commented on the poor run by Porto, which has seen them lose 3 of their last 4 matches, enabling rivals Sporting and Benfica to close the gap at the top of the table.

“These things happen in football, there are good moments and bad moments. At the moment we’re going through a bad moment, but we are experienced players and used to winning, so we just have to lift our heads and keep working.”

“I’m sure Porto will start winning again. Hopefully it will be in the next match against Naval. We can’t slip up any more. We’ve already slipped up too much and if we want to be champions we have to work harder.”

Related article: Ricardo Quaresma career profile