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| Wednesday, 02 May 2012 11:09 |
Jose Fonte: “It’s taken a while but I’ve finally achieved my Premier League dream”Portuguese defender earns promotion to EPL with Southampton Even before the summer transfer season has opened, the world’s most high-profile league is guaranteed another Portuguese protagonist in 2012/13. Centre-back Jose Fonte may have taken a roundabout route getting there, but the Southampton player is set on making the most of his opportunity to impress in the Premier League.
Fonte was at both Sporting and Benfica as a youth player but did not play for the senior team at either club. After spells at Felgueiras, Vitoria Setubal, Pacos de Ferreira and Estrela da Amadora, he decided to try his luck abroad and in 2007 signed for Crystal Palace in the Championship (England’s 2nd tier).
After three seasons at Palace, Fonte again took an apparent step backwards in order to take two steps forward, dropping down a division and signing for Southampton. Now 28 years old, his decision has been fully vindicated after two successive promotions catapulted the south-coast club back into the big time.
“When I used to play in Portugal I dreamed of coming to England and playing in the Premier League,” Fonte told Southampton’s official website. “It took me a while – it’s been five years since I came here – but finally I’ve achieved it.
“There were a few question marks about my decision to join Southampton, but I never had any doubt. The project of this club is a project that everyone in football would like to be involved in, so it was an easy decision for me.”
Enticing challengeFonte has played a major role in the club’s recent success, and is closing in on 100 appearances for Southampton. He believes the best is yet to come. “I’ll look forward to it, and I’ve never wanted to work so hard as I do now. I want to do well in the Premier League to prove to myself that I’m capable of doing that.”
Fonte cites the spirit within the squad as the major reason behind the successive promotions, but recognises and welcomes the fact that new players will be brought in.
“Everyone is friends with each other here, we all get on well and we do things together and I think that’s very hard to find in a group. When you have such a good group who really enjoy being with each other, I think that was the most important thing, the team spirit from all the staff, coaches and physios.
“We all know that players are going to come in and we’re comfortable with that. If they bring quality to the group then obviously we’re going to be happy with that. We all want to win and we all want to be successful and we need players who are going to bring quality to this group,” he added.
As Portugal’s production line of top-class centre-backs, which has spawned the likes of Fernando Couto, Jorge Andrade and Ricardo Carvalho in recent years, appears to be drying up, Fonte may be entering the apex of his career at just the right time.
Tom Kundert
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Fonte played almost every single minute of every single game for Southampton. Except for coming on as a sub at the 67th minute of one game and taken off at the half of another, he logged in every other minute. Impressive.
Let me add that Southampton led the league in scoring but were also very stingy on defense.
Hard to imagine him getting cut. If anything he might get poached by a bigger club. Whether that would be good is a wait and see.
On a side note, center backs have become a rare commodity. More than one "Big" club has aging and rapidly declining center backs. Selling clubs just might be cashing in on this.
I will be looking forward to seeing him compete.