Flamengo Football Director José Boto Speaks at Portugal Football Summit

Flamengo football director José Boto took part Thursday in the Portugal Football Summit, an international gathering of football industry leaders held at FPF Arena Portugal, part of the Football City complex in Oeiras, near Lisbon.

Boto appeared on the panel "Inside the Game: How Elite Football Leaders Build Winning Teams," joined by Fernando Meira, sporting director of Vitória SC, Helena Costa, football director, and Sami Khedira, technical assistant at Real Madrid. The discussion covered leadership, recruitment, talent development, decision-making and the construction of elite teams.

During the session, the Flamengo executive shared insights from his work at the Rio club and emphasised the importance of integration across all club departments to achieve sporting objectives.

"A sporting director is not just someone who signs players during transfer windows and then disappears. It's daily management of the various multidisciplinary teams at the club, putting all of them in service of the football team and the performance we want. At Flamengo, anything short of winning is a poor result," he said.

Boto also addressed his relationship with club president Luiz Eduardo Baptista during the discussion. He highlighted the alignment between the two in steering Flamengo's football and their shared commitment to maintaining the club's established strategy.

"My relationship with president BAP is very good, very positive. Often clubs are run from the outside in, and we don't allow that. He and I decided we will maintain our strategy, even though YouTube channels and influencers say completely different things. In professional football, we cannot let external opinion influence how we run the club," Boto explained.

Squad construction and medium-term planning were also key topics. Flamengo's approach in 2026 combines experienced players with young talent, focusing on immediate results while building for the future.

"Flamengo's objective is not to sell players. We buy for performance, and our motto is to win, win, win. We can now think long-term because what we already had in house was very competitive," he added.

The Portugal Football Summit runs for three days and brings together leading names from international football, including directors, executives, former players and professionals from across the sport. The programme features debates on management, innovation, performance, technology, communications and football's major global challenges.

Other participants include Jorge Jesus, current Portuguese national team coach and former Flamengo manager; Deco, Barcelona's sporting director; Pedro Proença, president of the Portuguese Football Federation; Laura McAllister, UEFA vice-president; Patrick Fischer, CEO of OneFootball; Nuno Catarino, Benfica CFO; and former players Roberto Carlos, Edgar Davids and Nuno Gomes.