“I thought they were joking” – Arsenal calling for transfer was an almighty shock

Luís Boa Morte lived something of a fairytale in the summer of 1997, which ended up with a move to Arsenal.

At that point he was owned by Sporting CP but had been loaned out to Lourinhanense. That was quite some drop down, with the loan club being in Portugal’s fourth division.

There it would obviously be easy to disappear, especially from the view of clubs outside the country. That was fine by the player because his aim had always been to make it to Sporting’s first team.

However, some good performances for Portugal at the youth Toulon Tournament, caught the attention of Arsenal.

Speaking as part of a large interview with O Jogo, Boa Morte told the Portuguese newspaper: “At the time, when they contacted me, I even thought they were joking, because I played in the fourth tier of Portuguese football. The truth is that I didn’t really want to go to England, my desire was to stay at Sporting and reach the first team. But they didn’t want to review my contract at that time and there was only that solution. From then on, my idols became my colleagues and things started to be done differently to what I was used to.”

It was obviously quite the jump from playing in Portugal’s fourth division to arriving to a myriad of stars at Arsenal, but it wasn’t so difficult for Boa Morte and he spoke a little English before he got there: “I was well received. On the first day, most people didn’t know me, they only knew that Arsenal had signed a Portuguese winger. But we got to know each other over time. Arsène Wenger was very important in the integration and even spoke to me before I signed.”

Boa Morte moved into coaching after his playing career and is currently in charge of Guinea-Bissau’s national team, having left a role at Fulham earlier this year.