Peter Street in the medieval center of Leipzig resounded with a march whose chorus contained the nickname of the vigilante hero “Chico.” It was late Wednesday morning and the Portuguese fans were reluctant to stop wandering around. They boasted of enthusiasm dedicated to singing to Francisco Boy Conceiçao, author of the saving goal, making it 2-1 in the 92nd minute of Portugal’s debut against the Czech Republic.
“Chico has his family like all players,” Roberto Martínez, Portugal’s Spanish coach, said in perfect Portuguese after the game. “Everyone has traveled a difficult path, with a lot of family sacrifice. “It’s just that it’s easy for everyone here to give their opinion from the outside because we all know Chico’s father.”
Francisco is the fourth of the five children of Liliana and Sergio Conceiçao, the same right winger who scored the three goals in the 3-0 victory the day Portugal’s second golden generation eliminated Germany from the group stage of Euro 2000. Rare are the children of great footballers who reach the level of professionals with similar success to that of their parents. Paolo Maldini, son of Cesare; Sebastián Verón, son of Juan Ramón; Xabi Alonso, son of Perico; Thiago Alcántara, son of Mazinho; and Federico Chiesa, son of Enrico, have been the most famous cases. This Euro Cup shines a light on the phenomenon of the son of Sergio Conceiçao, legend of the national team and Italian champion with Lazio who is also Chico’s coach at Porto. A double moral burden on the shoulders of the 21-year-old offspring, who came out as extreme like his father, but left-handed, and who carries the suspicion of enjoying undeserved privileges.
“I dedicate it to my family who has suffered a lot,” said the hero, before going to the shower bathed in rain, tears and perspiration, his own and that of others. Roberto Martínez took advantage of the occasion to go out to meet the critics who suggest that the last one to enter his list is a plugged-in. “Francisco is an example of a player who deserves to be in the national team and has shown that he is prepared to help the group,” said the coach. “He has incredible maturity and an instinct to be vertical and find the unmarking lines within the area. He is ours “spalha embers”.
Back embers, ember spreader in Portuguese, is a tactical specialty. This is the man who enters the final minutes of games that need a boost and with his dynamism and energy are capable of altering the pace of rival defenders, accustomed to certain references and suddenly forced to change them on the fly when fatigue leaves them. corrodes “For a coach, seeing how a player comes off the bench and shows what he showed with Pedro Neto, Semedo and Gonçalo Inácio is very important. Chico has done what he has been doing for the last four months on his team. Players with experience in the locker room allow us to do that. Is not easy. He showed personality.”
Francisco cut his teeth at home. Rodrigo, Sérgio and Moisés, his three older brothers, all professional soccer players, made it difficult for him. Liliana, the mother, had to arbitrate a permanent dispute. The father tried to mark the territory. Sergio, who has just terminated his contract as Porto coach after seven seasons, once said that when he went to train the first team and took Rodrigo and Francisco in his car to the quarry training sessions, he left them a kilometer from the sports city of Gaia so that they could do the last stretch on foot so that no one would see them arriving with the first coach.
Led by his father, Francisco made his debut in Porto’s first team in 2021. He was loaned to Ajax for a season and returned last year to become a productive winger. He was the player on the squad who completed the most dribbles and launched the most crosses. This Wednesday, in Leipzig, he jumped onto the field to get into the area with Cristiano Ronaldo, who at 39 years old broke the absolute record of six European Championships played. Even the Portuguese Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro, from the PSD, came to the game with the idea of seeing the great patriarch perform. “It was very exciting to discover so many people in the audience wearing the shirt with the number seven,” he said as he left the box. “Cristiano is a formidable athlete!”
Cristiano was left unmarked. Chico played his first three minutes in an official match and the first ball he touched was inside.
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