If there was an informal Farense museum, it would have to be there: from the flags on the walls, to the symbol at the entrance, to the framed tickets, to the photos of old teams. «Look, I'm here in this one», says one of those old glories that swarm in the imagination of São Luís. «And in that one too», she adds. It's Vilaça, a left defender from the 80s who arrived from Braga to mark an era. Everyone knows him, starting with Master João, the man behind this museum. In other words, Adega do Amável.
When you enter the establishment, it's already a long afternoon, there's a rare person who doesn't know you. Decades have passed, more than 40 years, but the memories of Manuel Vilaça playing on that left wing are still very vivid.
João Domingos, a native of Faro, who, after emigrating to the United States of America, returned to the Algarve, remembers it well. He is the owner of Amável and immediately greets him when he sees him.
«Hey man, you finally let yourself be seen!», he says, barely noticing Vilaça. Good excuse to start the conversation. «And do you remember him as a player, Master João?», I ask.
«If I remember... then of course I do. I was in the United States, but I came here to watch a lot of games. He was tough: he didn't miss a ball", he responds promptly.
Now, word to artist.
«I was a winger, above all, I was all over the corridor. He was aggressive in his play, but he turned his back and then nothing happened. And I have a funny thing: I was never expelled,” he says.
In his long career – from 1974 to 1990 – the former left defender played for several clubs: Braga, Farense, Espinho, Penafiel, Felgueiras, Ermesinde, Louletano and Faro and Benfica. Essentially, in the I League, but also in the II.
And it all started… with handball.
«I was more into handball and played very well, but it gave me a vaipe and I thought football was cool. I went to train with the youth team at Braga, I started when I was 15 years old, and I immediately got the hang of it,” he says.
It's not a unique case in the world of football, but it's always funny. Despite having spent his entire career as a left defender, Vilaça started in a very different position: forward.
«We were at that time of capture. For left defense, no one raised their hand and so I decided to raise it myself. I trained for seven minutes and was immediately selected. The next day, it was a training session with just the chosen ones: I started as a left defender in the youth squad and never left the position again,” he says.
The stories are told to the rhythm of a charcuterie board and glasses of wine. The years in Braga, he confesses, were essential – from training, to the seasons as a senior in which he rose to the I League for the first time.
More Faro is inseparable from the life story of this former left defender.
António Medeiros, then coach of Farense, needed a full-back and remembered Vilaça. The young player thought: “why not?”. A sign that the choice could not have been better is that, right in the introductory game, the athlete won against São Luís.
«It was my debut: I make a play, win a penalty and the coach applauds me. The bench grabbed me right there,” he says, proudly.
In that first season, Farense was one step away from moving up to the I Liga. «[Fernando] Barata, who was the president, changed the coach because he thought we had already promoted and it gave a bad result», he says.
They didn't go up that year, but in the following season – 1982/1983 -, the high point of Manuel Vilaça's career would come. He himself admits it.
«We were national champions of the II League. It was something out of this world to be champion of Farense. It is, therefore, a culmination. The associative mass, here in Faro, he liked me and I never had any problems. I was very rarely replaced. I always committed myself and put my physical ability into the game. But without ever being expelled!”, he says, between laughs.
Among the many memories in Faro, the former athlete also remembers Hristo Mladenov, the Hungarian coach, who, despite a subsequent anger that led him to leave the club, he describes as “a fantastic guy”.
«There was one time... We went to play in the II Division at Vasco da Gama de Sines' field. We were the best team, but they started to put up a terrible fight. The winger in front of me, my colleague, was Cheira and he was hiding. Playing on fear. I called him all his names, he started to get excited and he and I we leave the whole game", he says.
Em Faro, he played with a lot of people: Mészáros (Hungarian goalkeeper who also played for Sporting), Jorge Jesus, Manuel Cajuda, José Rafael, Skoda, Carlos Alhinho… All names that marked Portuguese football in the 80s.
He still remains friends with many: Cajuda, Skoda, Zé Rafael, but also Paulo Campos – Brazilian midfielder who played for Benfica and Farense –, Jorge Martins or Rogério Valério. The list never ends.
«Jesus was still there [in Faro] and one of the conditions he set was that I would only go to dinner if they invited me,” he says, laughing.
Perfect excuse to turn the conversation to another of Vilaça's passions: cooking. In fact, in Faro, perhaps this is a facet as well known as that of a footballer.
For decades, he owned a restaurant downtown. The taste for pots came from my football days.
«I hung up my boots at 32 and it's a whole new life. I had a knack for cooking, I already liked it, and I decided to open a restaurant,” she says.
From 1989 to 2002, “Vilaça” had its doors open, on Rua de São Pedro. From there, it remained open for another eight years, but in another location, close to the Brazilian Consulate.
Thousands of customers passed through there, some renowned, such as Jorge Palma, Pedro Abrunhosa and Maria João Pires.
«For 24 years, I did the Algarve Academic Weeks and fed everyone in the organization: artists, technicians, everything», he recalls.
«Everyone knows me as the player who owned the restaurant», he adds, smiling.
Despite being from Minho - with an accent that doesn't deceive -, the Algarve is part of Vilaça's life, and he remembers well what it was like to arrive in Faro.
«What immediately captivated me was a climate I wasn't used to... In Braga, it rained for months in a row. I arrive here and, in December, I am on the beach with my wife and two of my three children [the third, would be born later, in Faro]. So, I thought: I’ll never leave here again,” she says.
Hence, when he was forced to leave the Algarve for a few years (he left Farense in 1984 for Penafiel) “it cost a lot”.
«So much so that I returned in 1987 to play for Louletano», he adds promptly.
And were there no regrets, over so many years as a professional? Despite not responding directly, the former left defender tells two stories.
The first: when he was close to signing for a big one: FC Porto, in this case.
«In 1977, I was called up to the selection for the Toulon Tournament, I played four games and scored a goal. When I come from the national team, FC Porto is interested in me. Pedroto was the coach at the time, but Braga understood that he shouldn't leave yet. I was almost ready to take the leap,” he recalls.
The other: when he was almost ready to emigrate. «I went to train at Red Star Paris, which was in the French Second Division. They were interested, but Braga didn't let me either », she says.
When remembering these two stories, Vilaça also remembers the friendship he had with Fernando Gomes, the bibota with whom he played in Toulon, and passed away in November 2022.
Pick up your cell phone: «I have a message from him here that I haven’t managed to delete yet».
The conversation moves towards the end, with the former player also talking about the opportunity he had to take on the technical command of a club – Aljustrelense – which he ended up turning down.
«I took the coaching course, a team even came to pick me up, but I didn't want to go: there was no highway, I had my family here. I took refuge in the life I already had, which was very stable,” he says.
We say goodbye and the clock strikes dinner time. It's symptomatic: at the exit door, there is another customer at Adega do Amável who recognizes the former player.
«Look at Vilaça», he says. "Hello! Everything ok?”, the former athlete responds.
After the farewell greeting, he returns for a final conversation with Master João that we no longer hear. I bet it was about Farense.
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