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Pepe's Future With Porto Is Defined

Pepe will not continue as a Porto player, the club's new president, André Villas-Boas, has announced. The 41-year-old Portuguese-Brazilian center-back's contract expires this month and he will not be renewing it.

Villas-Boas said that the decision not to renew Pepe's contract was made "for reasons that, unfortunately, cannot happen." He added that the club has "the utmost respect for his career."

Pepe played for Porto from 2004 to 2007 before joining Real Madrid. He returned to Porto in 2019 and became the captain and a key player for the club. In his nine seasons with Porto, Pepe has won four league titles and five Portuguese Cups, among many other trophies.

The former Real Madrid player is currently in Germany with the Portuguese national team for his fifth European Championship.

Pepe's contract renewal was a pending issue for Porto's new board of directors, whose sporting director is the Spaniard Andoni Zubizarreta. It had been described as "complex" by the team's next coach, Vítor Bruno.

Villas-Boas has been in office since May after winning the club's elections against former president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa. Pinto da Costa had indicated before the vote that the continuity of Pepe and coach Sérgio Conceição was guaranteed if he won.

Former Teammate Reveals Real Madrid Legend Cristiano Ronaldo's Touching Gesture

Real Madrid legend Cristiano Ronaldo offered to give up money if it meant that his close friend Pepe ... [+] didn't leave the club, as revealed by the defender to Renascença in Portugal.

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Real Madrid legend Cristiano Ronaldo offered to give up money if it meant that his close friend Pepe didn't leave the club, as revealed by the defender to Renascença in Portugal.

Both players have since moved on from the Bernabeu, with Pepe retiring at Porto in 2024 while Ronaldo, who turned 40 this week, is still plying his trade at Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.

Once upon a time, though, in the 2010s, the compatriots were protagonists in a Madrid outfit that won four Champions League titles (three together) and Pepe shared a story from the time he was set to leave in 2017 during an interview with the Portuguese media.

"I spoke to him a lot and he told me to stay at Real Madrid. But I think my time at the club had already finished, because they were 10 years of great demand, where I gave up a lot of time. I tried to explain to him that I could no longer be there due to the difficulties I was having," Pepe recalled.

Pepe explained how Ronaldo said: 'If it's about money, man, I'll leave mine to give to you'.

"And I told him 'No, thank God it's not because of that, it's because of other issues'. I also wanted to experience football again and that's why I decided to go to Turkey," added Pepe, who in his last season at Madrid had been mostly benched thanks to the rise of Raphael Varane under Zinedine Zidane.

Pepe also shed light on what happened between former Portugal coach Fernando Santos and Ronaldo at the 2022 World Cup, when the latter was also left out of the starting line up.

"Internally, Cristiano was always very professional, he didn't compromise the group at any time. There was a lot of talk about it in the press and we are not immune, it reached all the players. Obviously no player likes to be left out," Pepe said.

"We want to bring joy to our people. I think it was more the sadness that this did not happen, for Cris, than the other situation itself. Then there is a lot of speculation about what the relationship is (between them), if it is good or not. I think it was up to the coach and Cris...", the Brazil-born center back trailed off.

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