PORTO - The home stadium of FC Porto's billiards team has celebrated its first major European success two weeks ago. The players of the winning team in the Europe Cup final will be in the spotlights again for the fourth 2017 World Cup next week (3 to 9 July). The organizing director, Alipio Jorge, continues the tradition and welcomes the world's top players for a new challenge. Frédéric Caudron is the title holder, Dick Jaspers, the world's number one.
João Ferreira, one of FC Porto's biggest talents, is looking forward to a next international performance. The 23-year-old mechanical engineering student played a major role in the European Cup final, in the match against the Turks of Gaziantep. The final of his match, with runs of 9 and 10 in the last three innings, was the apotheosis of FC Porto's most impressive billiard success in the history of the club.
,,I'm part of the best club in Europe, with the most friendly and warm people'', says João Ferreira proudly. ,,Most of us are football fans and usually go to the stadium to watch FC Porto's matches. There is an environment of a real club, where people cheer FC Porto in all kinds of sports. Many people that were in the venue when we won the European Cup, even didn't know anything about billiards, but were FC Porto fans and were supporting us.''
The young Portuguese started his career at the age of 7. ,,I actually started in pool and changed to three cushion when I was 11. I also played volleyball for 5, 6 years and became national champion in that sport. My real start in three cushion was after the European championship in 2005, where Torbjörn Blomdahl was the winner. It was the first time I became aware about the discipline. And after that, Porto encouraged us (the young guys) by creating a young, only three cushion team.''
Joāo finished his thesis right now and was assistant professor at the University this months. He reached his Master's degree in mechanical engineering. ,,I live in Maia, a city near to Porto, in my parents house. My girlfriend is Rita. I know her from school (8th grade), I brought her to billiards and now she likes it. I really had a good year, despite all the work I had and the short time for training. I also played for a team in Spain this year, Atenco Mercantil Valencia.''
The World Cup is a next step. João Ferreira, who can start with a wildcard in the main tournament: "Frédéric Caudron was my favourite player and idol for a few years. I also have a great admiration for my team players Dani Sánchez and Torbjörn Blomdahl. They have both become good friends with a big heart for FC Porto. In terms of coach, I never had a real trainer. At first, I spend a year with Ramon Rodriguez. Then some weeks in Spains with Quetglas. And I also went to Belgium some years ago to be teached by Paul Stroobants. But now, I only get some feedback from my teammates Dani and Torbjörn.''
The two top guns in the team are among the seeded players for the World Cup in the FC Porto stadium. The top fourteen of the global ranking: Dick Jaspers, Dani Sánchez, Frédéric Caudron, Marco Zanetti, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Jérémy Bury, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Haeng-Jik Kim, Sameh Sidhom, Jae-Ho Cho, Eddy Merckx, Murat Naci Coklu, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen and Jung Han Heo.
The best-known players on the final qualifying day are Semih Sayginer, Sung-Won Choi, Jae-Guen Kim, Tayfun Tasdemir, Choong-Bok Lee, Javier Palazón, Roland Forthomme and Eddy Leppens. The wildcards are distributed to Ihab El Messery, Myung-Woo Cho and home player João Ferreira.
The field of players is maximized at 150. On the reserve list are 43 players.
The first prelims start at 11.00 on Monday July 3rd. The main tournament is launched on Friday, July 7th at 14.00. The semi-finals and finals are on Sunday, July 9th.
The UMB and FC Porto invite all billiard fans to come and watch the matches live or follow it on kozoom.com.
FC Porto's star team with its teamboss and fans after victory in the Europe Cup
Joāo Ferreira with his girlfriend Rita