Carlos Alberto: “I regret leaving FC Porto to this day”

Champions League winner admits to making bad decision

Carlos Alberto, touted four short years ago as the next big Brazilian sensation, has seen his career go rapidly downhill since playing a leading role in FC Porto’s all-conquering 2003/2004 side under Jose Mourinho. Alberto fondly remembers his days with FC Porto, and has admitted that to this day he deeply regrets having left the Portuguese team in 2005.

The former Fluminense player joined Porto when Jose Mourinho was at the helm and played a big role in one of the club’s most successful ever seasons. He scored the opening goal in Porto’s 3-0 victory over Monaco in the final of the Champions League, and also won the Portuguese championship, Portuguese Cup and the Intercontinental Cup for the Dragons.

The talented but temperamental Alberto admits he made a mistake in abandoning the Portuguese powerhouse for Brazilian club Corinthians. Now 23, he feels that if he had stayed perhaps his career would not have suffered so many setbacks as has been the case since his departure.

“If I had a little more intelligence I would have stayed at FC Porto,” said Alberto on Brazilian web site iG Esportes. “There I would have been an idol. I won the Champions League and won a total of four titles in one year. I would have been the only player (from 2005) who would still be at the club.”

Exodus

“Vitor Baia ended his career, Deco went to Barcelona, everyone left (including Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira and Jose Mourinho to Chelsea) and I would have been the only one who would have remained.”

Alberto says his former coach at Porto, Jose Mourinho, was a big reason behind his early success. “He is the best coach in the world. He manages to get the best out of each player. At times, a player is more simplistic and he manages to use his assets as an important element for the team. Mourinho is different.”

The forward admits to having listened to some bad advice, with a combination of money, false promises and naivety leading him to return to Brazil for Corinthians, leaving behind a fantastic situation at Porto.

“I was 19 years old then,” explains Alberto. “They told me that Corinthians were constructing a great team and that I could be called to the Brazil national team. At the time, I was influenced by a lot of people because there was a lot of money at stake.”

Now things are not so rosy, with the player finding himself back in Brazil after an unsuccessful move to Werder Bremen in 2007.

Currently on loan to Sao Paulo, the player added that a series of bad injuries forced him back to his native soil. Alberto feel that Brazil is the best place to recover in peace and re-launch his career, possibly reaching the heights he once hit at Porto.