- Reports in Portugal claim Porto hired a witch doctor as an official employee
- President Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa is reportedly using Madalena Aroso’s skills
- Aroso is said to be on a monthly wage of £13,000, equating to £156,000 a year
- The move has sparked anger among supporters given the extortionate salary
Porto are paying a witch doctor to help secure the Portuguese league title, according to reports in Portugal – four years after rivals Benfica were thought to do the same.
It is claimed Madalena Aroso was hired by club president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa as a club employee five months ago, officially as a ‘doctor’.
And as reported by Abola, Aroso is being paid £13,000 a month by the Portuguese giants, which equates to more than a whopping £150,000 a year.
Porto president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa (pictured) is claimed to have hired a witch doctor
The claims have sparked widespread anger among fans, as the witch doctor would be the highest-paid employee at the club by a significant distance, amid club attempts to keep up with Financial Fair Play rules.
Aroso, apparently a ‘clairvoyant’ who can read the future and predict match results, was reportedly put on the books this summer, to help Porto reclaim the Primeira Liga title from Sporting Lisbon, who won it the previous campaign.
Sergio Conceicao’s unbeaten side are currently top of the league with 14 of 34 matches played, ahead of Sporting only on goal difference, with Benfica four points back.
Sergio Conceicao’s side are unbeaten in the league this season and currently top the table
Back in 2017, Porto’s communications director Francisco J. Marques accused then-Benfica president Luis Filipe Vieira – who has since resigned following his arrest relating to tax fraud – of using witchcraft to help them win the league.
Marques alleged Vieira paid Dr Armando Nhaga, the ‘National Police Commissioner of Guinea-Bissau’, £65,000 to secure the championship.
Marques said: ‘What are you creating an octopus for? Creating this monster that allows everything to Benfica and nothing to others, and for witchcraft?… I can say this is the biggest scandal in Portuguese football to come.’
Benfica won the Primeira Liga and Portuguese Cup that season, but there is, clearly, no evidence the two matters are correlated.
Portuguese football has had a long historical association with the occult, with Delane Vieira claimed to have released two frogs into a Vienna Stadium to help Porto win the Champions League (then called the European Cup) in 1987.
There are also anecdotal reports of a ‘Fafe Witcher’ being paid by Benfica fans to help them win the title – he later claimed he was paid £170,000 following their Primeira Liga triumph.
