Spanish striker Fran Navarro has become Porto’s first reinforcement for next season by signing a contract valid for five years, until 2028, the Portuguese club announced today.
Navarro, 25, begins a new challenge in Portuguese football after two years at Gil Vicente, where he became one of the top scorers in the Portuguese League.
The Valencian scored 37 goals in 78 games with Gil Vicente, 33 of them in Liga, making him the Spanish player with the most goals in the Portuguese top flight.
In addition, with his 17 goals last season, Fran Navarro finished third, equal to João Mário (Benfica), in the race for the ‘pichichi’, won by his future partner in blue and white attack, the Iranian Mehdi Taremi (22). .
And in his debut season in Portugal he finished fourth, after 16 goals.
The local press reported that the “dragons” paid Gil Vicente around 7 million euros for Navarro’s talents, making it the biggest sale of his former team, surpassing 6.5 million which he received from Atlético from Madrid by Brazilian Samuel Lino in 2022.
In statements to the Porto media, Navarro said that it was “a special day”, because he had always “dreamed of playing in a good and exciting team”.
“When I arrived in Portugal, I landed on my feet, I improved my game little by little and now I hope to take advantage of the opportunities and have very good numbers here,” he declared.
For his part, Porto president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa assured that the Spanish striker is one of the wishes of the team’s coach Sérgio Conceição, and that they have “great confidence and hope in him”.
Francisco José Navarro Aliaga, a native of the Valencian town of Pinedo, was trained in the Valencia youth academy and came to represent the subsidiary, but never made his debut in the main team.
In 2021, he bid farewell to the Valencian team to head to Gil Vicente, his second experience outside of Spain after a brief loan spell with Belgian Lokoren during his time at Mestalla.
He quickly established himself as one of the most lethal strikers in the Portuguese League, helping the club from the northern city of Barcelos (bordering Galicia) to a fifth-place finish. His goal continued in his second year at Gil Vicente, who managed to avoid relegation thanks to goals from the Valencian.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
