The defensive leader of the Portuguese national team is unemployed as of today. Képler Laverán Lima Ferreira was born in Maceió, the capital of the tropical Brazilian state of Alagoas, but has spent more than half his life in Portugal. Pepe is 41 years old and sings his country’s anthem with the certainty of those who believe that, as the lyrics say, he defends a “brave and immortal nation.”
Yesterday he finalized his contract with Porto, where he returned five and a half years ago, in theory, to bury his career. And today he will take to the Eintracht field to play against Slovenia (9:00 p.m., La1) without the certainty of a football future, with an obvious risk as well. “If I were to navigate those thoughts, I would get lost,” explains the oldest footballer to play in a European Championship. The Hungarian goalkeeper Kiraly had set the record in 2016 at just over 40 years old.
Pepe’s numbers have not suffered in the last season. He played 30 games for Porto, where he started as a substitute and in November he had already earned his place. He also did not stop showing his worth with the national team. There, coach Roberto Martínez values him as an example: “A professional 24 hours a day, he trains well, sleeps well, loves the game and has incredible genetics,” he praised him. The coach confirmed that the footballer has confessed his intention to play, at least, one more season. “The key is passion,” Pepe clarifies. And some work, too: “The physiotherapists say that I own the machines in the gym…”
So Portugal builds up from behind with a guy who defies convention and plays without a contract and at an age when others have long since retired. He is also a Praetorian who embraces the strategy of his coaches. Maybe that’s where we have to understand his departure from O Dragao after a volcanic campaign in the booth.
In the Euro Cup, Pepe defends Portugal, for which he has been playing for 17 years, and Martínez, whose desire to close the team with three defenders at the back is discussed. The defeat against Georgia, with an alternative lineup after having sealed the leadership of the group, reopened that debate and more so due to the weak performance of some pieces, such as the sought-after center António Silva, who appeared in the photograph of the goals conceded. “I talked to him. We are Family. We have to believe in the process. What is difficult is attacking teams that are closing in and finding the spaces,” Pepe assesses. For this reason, a fight similar to the one that ended with a fiasco against Georgia is expected against Slovenia. The Portuguese plan involves positioning players like Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva behind the rival midfielders and allowing them to find time and space there to generate football in the last 30 meters against Oblak.
It won’t be easy. Portugal knows it: since Morocco knocked them out of the last World Cup with a ticket to the semi-finals at stake, the national team, now under Martínez’s orders, played 15 games before arriving in Germany. They lost two, against Croatia in Lisbon and in Slovenia last March, with a three-man defence, but without Bruno and Bernardo. That day it was João Félix, whose loan with Barcelona ended yesterday although the club wants him to continue, and Otávio who were unsuccessful between the lines. The Slovenians matured the game and scored two goals in the epilogue. Pepe had already been substituted. He did not play in the failed friendly against Croatia and in the third defeat, against Georgia, he was on the bench. “A coincidence,” he says.
You can follow EL PAÍS Sports on Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
_
