With former Southampton defender José Fonte recently reaching 800 games in his career, he’s being celebrated by the Portuguese media this week.
Today, it’s newspaper O Jogo who feature a two-page interview with the 39-year-old, who currently plays for French side Lille.
Fonte spoke about many periods of his career, and recalled his move from Crystal Palace to Southampton. He claims that even though the decision wasn’t clear at first, he ended up being very happy with the Saints, who opened doors for him to go to the national team and even win a couple of international titles.
“I was sold to Southampton, who were in the 3rd Division, due to financial problems. It was an incredibly difficult decision, because the ambition was to play in the Premier League, but it turned out to be the right one because we went up two years in a row,” Fonte told O Jogo.
“I’ve kept a huge love for the club. I’ll never forget, they were very happy years, always with success, the first call-up to the national team occurred when I was on my way to 32-years-old.”
Southampton only spent €1.4m to sign Fonte from Crystal Palace in 2010. With him spending seven years at the club, the Saints are to this day the place where he had most appearances, with 288 games played.
It was in 2017 that the St. Mary’s side sold him to West Ham. He spent a season in London, then moving to China to play for DL Yifang, where he stayed for a few months, and has now been playing for Lille for five years.
