The majority of Portugal's World Cup squad share the same agent. The tournament starts next week.

The World Cup starts in five days. Ronaldo is playing his sixth. And 70% of Portugal's squad share the same agent. It's Saturday, 6 June. Twenty-six degrees. Here's what you need to know.

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THE MAJORITY OF PORTUGAL'S WORLD CUP SQUAD ARE MANAGED BY ONE AGENCY. THE TOURNAMENT STARTS NEXT WEEK.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off on June 11 across the USA, Canada, and Mexico. Portugal, drawn in Group K, play DR Congo in Houston on Wednesday June 17, Uzbekistan on Tuesday June 23, and Colombia in Miami on Saturday June 27. Roberto Martinez's squad is among the favourites. The midfield of Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Vitinha, and João Neves is arguably the strongest in the tournament. And at 41, Cristiano Ronaldo will become the first man to play in six World Cups.

But the story beneath the squad announcement is the one nobody in Lisbon is talking about openly. According to Portugal Post analysis, the majority of the 26-man squad are clients of Jorge Mendes and his agency Gestifute. João Félix, Bernardo Silva, Rúben Dias, Vitinha, João Neves, Gonçalo Ramos, Francisco Conceição, Diogo Dalot, João Cancelo, Rúben Neves, Nélson Semedo, and more. The list goes on. Mendes represented Ronaldo for nearly two decades before the pair split professionally in 2022, but even without his most famous former client on the books, Gestifute's grip on the squad is extraordinary.

Mendes has been the most powerful football agent on the planet for two decades. Gestifute's reach across Portuguese football is so deep that building a competitive national squad without his clients would be nearly impossible. Martinez has defended the selection on merit, and the squad's quality is undeniable. Nobody is arguing these players don't deserve to be there. The argument is about what it means when one agency's business interests overlap this heavily with a nation's sporting ambitions.

The practical question for fans: does it matter? Probably not on the pitch. This squad is built to compete. Martinez's win rate with Portugal sits near 70%. The midfield depth is ridiculous. The attacking options include Rafael Leão, Pedro Neto, and Francisco Trincão. The defence, anchored by Rúben Dias and Gonçalo Inácio, is solid. Portugal should top Group K comfortably and enter the knockout rounds as one of the four or five teams capable of winning the whole thing.

The emotional question: does it matter? In a country where football is the closest thing to a national religion, and where the World Cup is the stage that every generation measures itself against, the idea that one agency's roster determines the squad is uncomfortable. It doesn't make the squad worse. It makes the system that produces it worth questioning.

For Lisbon, the World Cup means the city will be watching at unusual hours (most matches kick off late evening Portuguese time, with some running past midnight). Bars in Bairro Alto, Cais do Sodré, and Santos will screen every Portugal game. The streets after a win are something you need to experience at least once.

Bottom line: Portugal's World Cup campaign starts June 17 in Houston. The squad is strong, the manager is confident, and one agency is behind most of it. Enjoy the football. Ask the questions later.

⚡ QUICK HITS

Portugal's hoteliers are less confident about this summer. A survey published this week shows hotel sector confidence has dropped compared to 2025. The reasons are the ones you've been reading about all month: geopolitical tensions pushing up fuel and energy, the strike aftermath, and the EES airport chaos making the arrival experience miserable. Tourism hit €29.1 billion last year. Whether 2026 matches it depends on whether visitors can actually get through passport control. If you rent on Airbnb or work in hospitality, the mood is cautious.

Portugal's elder care system is in crisis, and immigrant workers are the ones keeping it running. Nursing home waiting lists are growing. Costs exceed most pensions. And the workforce filling the shifts that Portuguese workers won't take comes largely from Brazil, Nepal, and India, many of them navigating the same AIMA backlog your newsletter has been covering for months. For expat readers with ageing parents in Portugal, or anyone thinking about their own long-term care here, this is the quiet crisis nobody is talking about.

A Chinese electric car just launched in Portugal. 646 horsepower. €55,450. The Zeekr 7GT arrives via Salvador Caetano in July. It charges in 16 minutes. The range is 655 kilometres. The price undercuts comparable European EVs by tens of thousands. The Chinese EV invasion of the European market has been discussed for years. It just showed up at a Portuguese dealership.

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🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

ESPLANADA DO JARDIM DA ESTRELA (ESTRELA)

This is not a restaurant recommendation. It is a Saturday morning in June recommendation, which is better.

The kiosk café in Jardim da Estrela is where the neighbourhood eats breakfast on weekends. Coffee, fresh juice, tostas, pastries, and the kind of morning that only happens when you sit under old trees in a park that has been here since 1852 and let the city wake up around you.

The Jardim da Estrela is one of the best parks in Lisbon and one of the least overrun. A duck pond. A Victorian bandstand. A playground that actually works. An iron fence covered in bougainvillea. Peacocks (sometimes). And a tree canopy thick enough that 26-degree June mornings feel like 20. The kiosk sits in the middle of it, with outdoor tables that fill with families, dog walkers, couples reading newspapers, and the occasional person who clearly slept in and is using coffee as a rescue operation.

The menu is kiosk-simple: coffee, galão, fresh orange juice, pastéis de nata, tostas mistas, toasted sandwiches, beer from noon onward. The prices are park prices, which is to say the prices Lisbon used to charge for everything before the city discovered it was fashionable. A coffee and a pastel de nata will cost you less than €3. A tosta mista and a juice, less than €5. You are paying for the setting, and the setting is worth ten times what you pay.

After breakfast, walk the park. The Basílica da Estrela is directly across the road (free entry, the dome terrace has views across the city). The Cemitério dos Ingleses (English Cemetery), where Henry Fielding is buried, is a two-minute walk. The Tram 28 stops right outside. Pinot Bar (last Friday's Spot of the Day) is a five-minute walk for an afternoon glass of natural wine if you decide to stay in the neighbourhood.

→ Coffee under the trees in one of Lisbon's best parks. Find them here ←

Estrela, inside Jardim da Estrela.

Insider tip: Arrive before 10am on a Saturday. Bring a book. Order a galão and a pastel de nata. Sit under the biggest tree you can find. Stay until you're ready to leave, which will be later than you planned. This is what Saturday mornings in Lisbon are supposed to feel like.

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