We have reached the last group of the World Cup, Group H. And we are going to talk about the country that colonized Brazil; today is the day to find out about Portugal.
PORTUGAL
- Name written in its native language: Portugal
- Language: Portuguese
- Capital city: Lisbon
- Currency: Euro (BRL 5.05 – currency exchange on 11/07/2022)
- Main player: Cristiano Ronaldo
- Typical food: Salt cod fritters
Curiosities
Portugal still has close ties with Brazil, and one of the best examples of this is that Brazilians do not need a visa to enter Portugal and remain in the country for up to 90 days.
An unusual curiosity that is little known in Brazil is that Portugal has several things made of cork. For those who don’t know, cork is the material used to produce wine bottle corks, for instance. This material is renewable and, in Portugal, it’s possible to find glass coasters, ornaments, and even bags and shoes made of cork. Portugal is the world leader of cork production, with approximately 100,000 tons produced per year.
Portugal also has a connection with Harry Potter universe. The author of the books, J.K. Rowling, lived in Porto for 18 months, and was inspired by the vestment of the University of Coimbra veterans, who wear black clothes with a long cape over the clothes. This vestment has inspired the clothes worn by Hogwarts students. J.K. Rowling only added details with the colors of each of the houses from Harry Potter universe.
Portugal economy has undergone changes due to the pandemic; tourism was a very important sector to the country and underwent a retraction. Portugal is also a great producer of grains, potatoes, tomatoes, olives, olive oils, and fish.
The Portuguese language spoken in Portugal is different from Brazilian Portuguese. The “original” Portuguese came from the Latin and arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around the III century BC, brought by the Romans. And in XIII century, D. Denis, king of Portugal, established Portuguese as the official language in all documents of the kingdom. Brazilian Portuguese arrived together with the discovery and went through countless changes, with a direct influence from languages spoken in Brazil, mainly Tupi Guarani. Hence, the Brazilian who arrives in Portugal may have some difficulties in communication, mainly at first. Some examples of different words with the same uses in the two countries: ônibus = autocarro; trem = comboio; suco = sumo, sorvete = gelado; celular = telemóvel.
There is no translation from Portuguese from Portugual into Brazilian Portuguese, since the language is the same. But it’s possible to make adjustments for the understanding to occur and, for such, there are professional translators who provide this type of service.
The Portuguese cuisine is based on fish; Portugal has an extensive sea cost and, hence, fish consumption is traditional in the country. One of the most consumed is cod. It can be eaten in several ways, and we will highlight the salt cod fritters.
Although the recipe is simple, it has a singular flavor. The cod is mixed with potato, eggs, and parsley, and fried in the form of dumplings; there is also a version of salt cod fritters with cheese, and several establishments in Portugal are specialized in salt cod fritters.
The Portuguese soccer is a national passion, and it’s very common that Brazilian players arrive in Europe through the major Portuguese soccer clubs. Portugal team, however, has never won a World Cup, and was the champion of UEFA Euro in 2016 over France. Before that, the Portuguese team was haunted by the defeat in the finals of UEFA Euro 2004, when it lost to Greece.
The main player in Portugal is Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the greatest players in the soccer history, who has won the Golden Ball 5 times, was the leading goal scorer 7 times in UEFA Champions League, besides being elected 4 times the best player in Europe.
Cristiano Ronaldo had the best phase of his career in Real Madrid, where he starred one of the greatest rivalries of soccer history against Lionel Messi. Cristiano’s Real Madrid matches against Messi’s Barcelona were watched all over the planet. The Portuguese star player returned in 2021 to Manchester United, the first team where he played outside Portugal. However, his return was not as good as he expected. Cristiano was involved in controversies with the coach Erik ten Hag, who constantly left him in the bench. In one of these matches, the coach called Ronaldo to play a few minutes before the end of the match, and the Portuguese player refused to enter and went to the locker room even before the end of the match. Manchester United even put Cristiano away due to his attitude, but he has already reintegrated into the team.
Cristiano is already 37 years old and this should be his last World Cup and the last chance of one of the best players in history to win the most important trophy in soccer.
This was Eko’s in the World Cup for Portugal. If you liked it, follow our social media (Instagram: @ekostraducoes / LinkedIn: ekostraducoes) and come back next week, because we are going to talk about Ghana.
