'We are challenging each other': Inside the Porto x New Balance partnership, as FourFourTwo meets those involved

It is the 15th of August 2015. In Porto’s Estádio do Dragão, Silvestre Varela wheels away towards the crowd, having just scored the third goal in a 3-0 drubbing of Vitoria de Guimares on Primeira Liga opening day. The sun has been shining all day, and there’s a real feeling that this team might be something special.

It is the 4th of October 2023. In Porto’s Estádio do Dragão, Mehdi Taremi holds his head in his hands as his spectacular overhead kick is ruled about by VAR as they trail 0-1 to Barcelona in the Champions League. The sun has been shining all day, and there’s a real feeling that this team might be something special.

In the time between these two games, a lot has happened at FC Porto. They’ve claimed 3 Primera Ligas, won Taça de Portugal and Taça de Liga a combined 4 times, and seen Ruben Neves, Fabio Vieira, Diogo Dalot and Vitinha emerge from their academy to play for some of the biggest clubs on the planet. It’s been, as indeed football has been, a time of rapid and consistent change. However, there have been two unshakable consistents.

The support from the fans, and their club-wide partnership with sportswear giants New Balance.

“We always say that our destiny is to win, but it’s not enough to just say it, we need to show it”. 

Pedro Albuquerque, officially the Head of FC Porto International but, unofficially, an almost peerless one-man welcoming committee for the club, is addressing the room tonight. “In that sense” he continues, “we’re perfectly aligned with New Balance”.

On this, the 20-year anniversary of their historic Champions League win, and fast approaching the 130th anniversary of the club as a whole, Porto has announced a landmark global sponsorship deal with New Balance that’ll see their time working together stretch comfortably into a decade. Beyond merely having the brand emblazoned on their kits though, New Balance are supporting the club’s youth setup as well. Including renaming the existing training complex of both Porto and the Dragon Force youth teams to ‘New Balance Park’ early next year, and signing some of the club’s brightest young talents to provide support to them both on and off the pitch.

“The main thing will always be the talent and the commitment to detecting and developing it,” Albuquerque tells us. “For us, having a partner like New Balance betting on our talents is a source of pride and a sign that we are doing good work. We've found a partner who is strongly committed to us. But we are a challenging club, just as New Balance is in its sector. We're constantly challenging each other, which catapults us to the level we want to reach”.

But commercial partnerships are not, historically, what gets the blood pumping. Fans tend to greet them with apathy at best, cynicism at worst, and see them as little more as a means to an end in the constant off-field scramble not to be left behind by one's rivals. 

However, FC Porto’s beating heart has always been its academy. The quality and frequency of its graduates has kept the club at the very top of Portuguese football, and a cemented fixture on the European landscape, throughout almost all of its recent history, and it’s this fundamental asset that the New Balance deal is designed to support.

Even our host Albuquerque, up here in the stands rather than on the pitch, is a product of the same environment. Arriving at the club while still at school, staying on with an internship and then simply never leaving, he proudly refers to his work as a childhood dream, and considers himself a product of the club. 

It’s a story that we’re told isn’t uncommon at the club, and seeing that ethos spread beyond merely the football development, and into every corner of FC Porto as an institution, makes it easy to see why any commercial partner needs to align with it.

Whether this current crop of Porto’s stars do go on to achieve great things remains to be seen. There was certainly more than enough fight, guile, and talent against Barcelona, even in defeat, to suggest that any team coming to Estádio do Dragão this season are unlikely to be doing so as favourites. But off the pitch, it’s clear the process that’s served them well so far, is still being trusted. 

“New Balance always wants more,” Albuquerque tells us, gesticulating with approval to really hammer home what a compliment that is. “It’s this spirit of conquering that reflects perfectly what Porto also has in its DNA. Relationships are always the basis for a job well done and, fortunately, we’ve found great people”.

FC Porto first signed with New Balance in 2014 and the partnership has gone on to become one of the longest in New Balance’s 117-year history. One of Europe’s most decorated clubs, FC Porto has claimed 84 honours in its history, with major highlights including: 30 Primeira Liga titles, 2 UEFA Champions League and 2 UEFA Europa League victories. Since the start of the relationship with New Balance, FC Porto has claimed 10 of those honours as the club continues to thrive both domestically and in Europe.