David Carmo’s Porto nightmare goes from bad to worse | OneFootball

In January 2021 Braga centre-back David Carmo was riding the crest of a wave. He was on the cusp of a lucrative €20 million transfer to Liverpool, only for Braga to pull the plug on the deal because they did not have enough time to bring in a replacement.

Three years down the line and Carmo’s potential career at the top is in doubt after his coach at FC Porto, Sérgio Conceição, relegated him to the B-team amid stinging words of criticism.

Carmo’s short career has been an authentic roller-coaster thus far.

Despite missing out on the Liverpool move, then being out of the game for over a year after an awful leg break early in 2021, Carmo continued to impress at Braga upon his return from injury.

He moved to Porto in the summer of 2022. The price tag of €20 million plus €2.5m in add-ons made it a record transfer fee between Portuguese clubs.

However, instead of being the launchpad for Carmo to become one of Europe’s best central defenders, the 24-year-old’s career has nosedived at the Estádio do Dragão, culminating in relegation to the club’s B team this week with coach Sérgio Conceição not holding back in his negative appraisal of the player.

“He is falling short of what we want.”

“It’s a fact that in disciplinary terms, the player has behaved improperly. As for his sports performance, he is currently behind players in his position in emotional and technical-tactical aspects, and he may also be behind the players in the B-team.

“He will have more chances to play in the B-team, depending on his application, determination and the decisions made by the coach António Folha. At the moment, he’s a player who is below what we want and he has to show us that he deserves a place in the team.

“In terms of his play and his discipline, he is falling short of what we want. He has to compete to show the head coach of the first team he is at the required level.”

It is not the first time Conceição has publicly criticised Carmo, who was the target of the coach’s ire after giving away a clumsy penalty in last season’s Champions League game against Club Brugge.

The Aveiro-born defender played only 18 matches in his debut year, and things have not improved much for the defender this season. Carmo has featured in just 12 of Porto’s 24 matches in 2023/24 despite long-term injury to first-choice Spanish centre-back Marcano and a series of injuries and suspensions to other options for the heart of Porto’s defence.

Conceição has preferred to play Zé Pedro, a B-team central defender with no previous first-team experience prior to this season.

Carmo is finding out the hard way that tough disciplinarian Sérgio Conceição is extremely exacting in terms of the standards he demands with all his players regardless of reputation or transfer fee. Other expensive players who have failed to win over the trust of the coach include Japanese forward Shoya Nakajima and, at least so far, ex Barcelona midfielder Nico González who has barely featured this season.

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