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.”
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.
