Chris Smalling has found a new club. The former Manchester United and England centre-back has signed for Porto, the team sitting top of the Portuguese league, after spending the early weeks of the season without a contract.
He is 36, and he is not treating this as a farewell tour. Smalling left Saudi Pro League side Al-Fayha in the summer and had been looking for the right place to carry on. Porto have given him a deal until the end of the season, with an option for a further year.
A summer of waiting
The wait was long enough for the rumours to pile up. At one stage he was linked with a move to Rangers, but nothing came of it. Instead, the door that opened was in Portugal, at a club that has won every league game it has played.
Smalling has played his club football outside England since 2020, and he was keen to extend a professional career that is already 19 years old. Porto have given him the chance to do exactly that.
What Porto are getting
The CV is hard to argue with. Smalling started out at non-league Maidstone before moving through Fulham and then Manchester United, where he won five major trophies, two Premier League titles among them. Later, at Roma, he lifted the Uefa Conference League under Jose Mourinho in 2022. He also collected 31 caps for England.
He joins a side with very little to complain about. Francesco Farioli's Porto have won all seven of their league games this season and already lead second-placed Benfica by five points. The one blemish came in Europe, where they lost at home to Manchester City in their opening Champions League game.
Short contract, clear message
A deal to the end of the season with a one-year option is the kind of arrangement that suits both sides. Porto get an experienced defender without a long commitment, and Smalling gets a proper stage again at a club chasing trophies. Whether he walks straight into the team is another question, and nothing in the announcement suggests either way.
What is clear is that a player who spent weeks waiting for a phone call has landed at the top of a table. For someone who started at Maidstone, that is a decent way to keep a long career going.
Transfer context: Chris Smalling, 36, centre-back. Signed for Porto on a contract until the end of the season with an option for a further year. Previous club: Al-Fayha (left in the summer). Career: Maidstone, Fulham, Manchester United, Roma, 31 England caps. Source: BBC Sport.
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