“Twe presume to win [o Mundial] always, we have an abundance of talent, with all positions very well filled and with a lot of quality. For this reason, I say that Portugal is clearly one of the three, four candidate teams to win the competition”, said the 44-year-old former centre-back.

The former player for Vitória SC, Felgueiras, Benfica, Stuttgart, Galatasaray, Zenit and Zaragoza analyzed the Portuguese team’s journey to qualifying for the final phase of the 2022 Mundial, considering that the good initial moment of the selection, which will now have to replicate, was Accompanied by “some ease”, which led the formation coached by Fernando Santos to need to win the ‘play-offs’ to reach Qatar.

“Logically, in relation to qualifying, I think that Portugal ended up making it easier in the final phase, in the home game against Serbia, in which they had everything to win and thus stamp their qualification in a positive way. later Turkey,” he said.

Fernando Meira, who served the 54 caps for Portugal, identified the change in mentality between the trajectory in international and international competitions as one of the main difficulties imposed on athletes, which could be accentuated in the World Cup, since it will be played in the middle of the sporting season. .

“I think there is an important transition from what is the domestic League game to the international game. It happens a lot in football. Sometimes we have to know how to distinguish what is our current moment in the league table of the club where we are and we have to focus more. They are games with greater intensity, much more exposure, and that all players want to play. Preparation is lived in a completely different way. I was no exception to the rule”, he noted.

The former defense was one of the main pillars of the Portuguese campaign in the 2006 Mundial, which consumed the semi-finals, having also integrated the Portuguese team in Euro2008 and registered “the privilege” of being present in the competition, having highlighted the “involvement of the favoured” as the main motivating factor.

“Just representing the national team was a source of enormous pride. From the moment you wear your country’s shirt, you hear your country’s anthem… That’s what, I think, every player aspires to, regardless of be in a big competition or not. It’s the best feeling in the world as a player because it’s reaching the maximum exponent of your country”, expressed the former footballer.

The Thinking Football conference took place between Friday and today, at Pavilhão Rosa Mota, in Porto.