Sporting players inspire Portuguese School students

António Conceição Junior (left) and two Sporting footballers pictured with a EPM student

Sporting Clube de Macau (SCM) conducted a workshop on education yesterday at the Portuguese School of Macau, where five of the club’s professional football players shared their experiences and answered students’ questions.
The players encouraged students to stay healthy in mind and body, in order to build a solid foundation for their future careers.
SCM’s president, António Conceição Junior, said that the students’ response was very satisfying, and expressed his hopes that SCM would reach out to the Chinese- speaking community in the future.
“It’s very inspiring because the idea came from the players themselves. As the president, I immediately thought it was a very good idea to reach out to the community and the students responded very well,” the president remarked while speaking to the Times.
Vitor Almeida, one of the players, acknowledged the development of football in Asia and said he hoped to see more local growth for the sport.
Another player, Pyo Junior, stated that, as Sporting players, they are representing the Portuguese community. “To come and visit here, we were able to transmit ideas on how to be a good sportsman. We are sharing experiences that we have,” he said.
Some students agreed that the club’s great impact on the community was due to the large Portuguese population in Macau.
Eleventh grade student Duarte voiced his admiration for the discussion around the conciliation of sports and education. “Being students, our main job and task is to get good grades and prepare ourselves for the future. Sports are a good way of giving you life lessons. In school, you get books; in football, you get friends and mature advice.”
As the 2016 season of Macau’s top-flight football championship (Elite League) approaches, players from SCM are positive about their forthcoming performance. They said they are building a good team and have been working since early November.
“I think we can do good things this season. Last year was not so good, we finished in fifth position, but we are stronger than last year. We train to achieve our goal,” Pyo added.
SCM president said that the team would try their best. Despite claiming that it was still too early to comment, he stated his belief that the group would be successful.