The uniquely elite career of Pepe, a Real Madrid and Porto icon

Football fans had already bid farewell to two of the best midfielders of the 2010s and early 2020s, Thiago Alcantara and Toni Kroos, as the former Bayern Munich and LaLiga icons decided to retire.

Thiago’s exit came after injuries robbed him of a true farewell in the Premier League with Liverpool, where he showed flashes of the player who so expertly guided Die Roten to the 2019/20 treble.

Meanwhile, Kroos left world football on top, having shined as Germany’s best player at Euro 2024 after conquering LaLiga and the Champions League one last time for Real Madrid as a six-time career UCL champion between the Royal Whites of Spain and the Reds of Germany.

Now, world football will say goodbye to a legend on equal footing of Thiago and Kroos, with a pedigree of longevity that will enable him to stand the test of time as a legend, even if his actual peak greatness went overlooked at the time.

Former Real Madrid, FC Porto, and Portuguese national team center back Pepe announced his retirement on Aug. 8 at the age of 41, ending the career of a consummate professional who played this beautiful game on his term for more than two decades.

It’s time to take a look back at Pepe’s one-of-a-kind career, spanning four clubs in three very different countries and leagues.

Beginnings and rise

Pepe got his start in 2001 as an 18-year-old, and just one season later in 2002/03, Pepe was a full-time starter at the defensive midfield position, logging 2,348 minutes in a defensive role.

Basically, Pepe was a prodigy from the start, even if, looking back at his career, the vast majority of football fans have never heard of Maritimo or known his early-career exploits.

He was so good that one of the biggest clubs in Portugal – Sporting CP, the team of Cristiano Ronaldo – wanted to sign him, but they were unable to meet Maritimo’s financial demands.

So instead, Pepe helped lead the Madeira-based club to the UEFA Cup in the 2003/04 season, making 30 starts as he showed more progress in his subsequent season, and he finally got his big move, for real, within Portugal to FC Porto, the club Jose Mourinho turned into a powerhouse before leaving for Chelsea that year in 2004.

Pepe and Mourinho never got to work together in Portugal, and after only coming second in the league in the 2004/05 season after winning the treble in 2003/04, Pepe and Porto righted the ship with back-to-back league title victories after the center back became more of a fixture in the lineup.

It was in 2005/06 when Pepe became known as one of the most brilliant defensive players in world football, turning into the Libero in the 3-4-3 system, and he even set a career high four goals in his final season in Porto in 2006/07.

By then, Pepe was only 23, but he already had a handful of years of starting experience under his belt, plenty of reps in European competition, and two league titles to his name as one of the very best center backs in the world.

Becoming a Real Madrid legend

In 2005, Real Madrid set their next era of defensive greatness in motion by spending 27 million euros to sign Sergio Ramos from Sevilla, setting a record for the most money spent on a Spanish defender.

Just two years later in 2007, Real Madrid spent three million euros more for a total of 30 million on Pepe from Porto, banking on the Portuguese center back entering his prime as the ideal defensive partner for Ramos over the next 5-10 years.

As usual, Real Madrid could not have been more correct in their assessment, but even they could not have predicted just how well Ramos and Pepe would mesh and how feared, talented, and, later, intelligent of a duo they would become as the tone-setters of Real Madrid’s next era of Champions League dominance.

In his first season with Real Madrid, Pepe didn’t even start 20 games, but he did win LaLiga. Already, Real Madrid could see the duality of Pepe, as his fiery temper could get him into fights with his own teammates but could also enable him to stand out as the best player on the pitch in a Clasico.

Pepe’s second season at Real Madrid was a disaster and highlighted his two fatal flaws. First, the injuries, which limited him. Second, the crazed anger that led to one of the worst disciplinary records in LaLiga during the mid-2000s.

That season in 2008/09, Pepe looked less like a 25-year-old center back maturing into his prime and more like the U21 player at FC Porto who once had 29 yellow cards in back-to-back seasons.

Pepe was suspended for 10 games after a derby melee against Getafe in which he stomped on a player several times and then hit another player in the face, disgracing himself and Real Madrid in the process as the Merengues were doomed to yet another second-placed finish behind bitter rivals Barcelona.

Real Madrid needed more maturity from Pepe, and after his torn ACL in 2009/10, the arrival of Jose Mourinho, and the arrival of countryman Ricardo Carvalho to be a stabilizing center back partner, there was hope that the club would see Pepe put it all together as his Porto career foretold.

Although Pepe didn’t end up cutting down on the number of hilariously bizarre acts of aggression that often became bigger talking points than his actual play on the pitch, for those not too distracted by the antics, Pepe was indeed reaching his peak at Real Madrid.

In the 2010/11 LaLiga season, Pepe averaged both 2.7 tackles and 2.7 interceptions per game, and, from there, both he and Real Madrid took off to achieve greater heights in the coming seasons.

Real Madrid would win LaLiga in the 2011/12 season. Although Pepe started to face competition at center back with young gun Raphael Varane showing that he had the potential to be an even better defender than the Portuguese veteran, the 2013/14 season offered Pepe an opportunity to show that, at the age of 30, he had morphed into an even better player with age.

By now, Pepe was no longer the rough-around-the-edges, talented-but-silly firecracker of a center back who once stomped on Lionel Messi’s hand. And Real Madrid were no longer the unruly adolescents they were under Jose Mourinho.

Instead, Real Madrid, as a squad, took on a more mature and assured look under Carlo Ancelotti, with Pepe, now 30, epitomizing that by becoming a true leader and, paradoxically, a calming influence at the back.

Real Madrid only finished third in LaLiga in the 2013/14 season, but, finally, after 12 long years, they were champions of Europe again, winning La Decima in epic, clutch fashion over crosstown rivals Atletico Madrid.

Pepe produced his finest season as a Real Madrid player in 2013/14, averaging 1.5 tackles, 2.5 interceptions, and 5.1 clearances per game while being dribbled past just 0.3 times per contest.

He even completed over 85 percent of his passes for the second time in his Real career – an occurrence that would become regular thereafter. Pepe seemed to save his best performances for the big Champions League nights, too, showing a level of class that had Carlo Ancelotti consistently singing his praises, noting how much he had changed his game to become more of a leader the club could trust as opposed to the young hothead he was for years in the Spanish capital.

After La Decima, Pepe would spent three more seasons with Real Madrid, ending his celebrated career with the biggest club in the world as a champion of Europe again in 2015/16 and 2016/17, averaging 1.6 tackles and 2.5 interceptions per game with only 0.4 dribbles completed per game in 2015/16 before bowing out of the 2016/17 season with solid numbers but more games out injured than starts.

Pepe left Real Madrid in 2016/17 as part of one of the greatest sides ever assembled and a champion of Spain and Europe, but also a man ready to move on to the next chapter of his career, perhaps written off by some as ready for retirement, having already accomplished so much at the club and international level as an undisputed world-class center back ready to pass the torch to Varane in Madrid.

That European Championship

Before we discuss how Pepe turned the narrative of being, as the kids say, “finished” after Real Madrid on its head, we have to talk about what Pepe did in 2016 after he won his second Champions League trophy with Real Madrid.

As brilliant as Pepe was for Real Madrid (and FC Porto), his magnum opus will always be his Euro 2016 performance, which teammate Cristiano Ronaldo quite rightfully argued was the best of the tournament, above actual winner (but tournament loser) Antoine Griezmann’s display.

Cristiano and Pepe share one of the closest bonds any two players can share in world football because of all they accomplished together at the peak of their careers both at Real Madrid and Portugal.

Winning three Champions League titles for a club of Madrid’s stature is one thing, and both Cristiano and Pepe had the added bonus of being there to pull the club back up from one of their worst periods.

However, their achievements as leaders and the faces of Portugal at Euro 2016 will live on in history, because winning a major tournament with Portugal – not a global power in football – is the kind of signature victory that makes someone immortal.

Cristiano had a very good tournament in spite of what his incessantly annoying critics may say, but there can be little doubt that this specific tournament belonged to Pepe.

Portugal won as a collective and fought in ways that no other club was willing to at the Euros, proving that they were more than just a team that happened to have the biggest superstar on the planet (and I’m not just talking about soccer). In fact, it was only fitting that Portugal won the Euros without Cristiano even on the pitch due to injury and that their hero against France in the Final was Eder, viewed as one of the weakest strikers in the entire tournament.

But technically, Portugal did have a superstar who showed up with a career performance at Euro 2016 – and that was Pepe. Maybe he was overlooked by the average fan fixated on attacking statistics, but virtually everyone who lives and breathes football will always remember that tournament as the one where Pepe became a legend.

Pepe put everything on the line in every single match, bringing that defensive midfield fire from his early-career days in Portugal to the center back position on one of football’s biggest international stages.

He averaged 3.2 interceptions and more than 6 clearances per game for Portugal, leading by example in so many last-gasp, backs-against-the-wall defensive stands while making more goal-saving stops than anyone else had goal-producing plays.

Just as La Decima was the turning point in which Pepe went from flawed talent to ideal center back, Euro 2016 was when Pepe went from being a world-class player to an actual legend.

Cementing his legacy

Although Pepe’s initial stop after Real Madrid was Besiktas in the Turkish Super Lig as a free agent signing, he actually didn’t ride off into the sunset after cashing a couple of paychecks in Turkey as so many others do.

Instead, Pepe went back to Porto at the age of 35 in 2018 to work with the next great Real Madrid center back, Eder Militao, to continue his Champions League career (Pepe was in the UCL once with Besiktas).

Pepe’s Porto return could not have gone any better. If anything, at the age of 35 and above, Pepe was only adding to his legacy and entrenching himself as one of the best center backs of his era, which is a distinction he may not have solidified as completely without these important years at one of the clubs of his roots.

He had solid international performances at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, as well as several seasons of high-quality defensive displays both in Portugal’s Primeira Liga and in the Champions League, including an elimination of Cristiano Ronaldo in the 2020/21 season when Porto outlasted Italian giants Juventus.

Even in 2024, Pepe was still one of the better center backs in world football, earning high marks for his displays for Porto in the Champions League before outshining every Portugal player at Euro 2024 as one of the best defenders of the tournament with 3.6 combined tackles and interceptions and more than 6 clearances per game for his country.

Even better in retrospect

From 2002 to 2024, Pepe was a regular starter and one of the best center backs in European football, shining for club and country. He was a phenom who started games as a teenager and was still on top of his game into his 40’s, maintaining a high degree of quality at the international level until the end.

Toni Kroos brought home LaLiga and the Champions League in his final season at the age of 34, but, likewise, Pepe is retiring on top at the age of 41 on different terms, getting to go out with Porto and Portugal.

Pepe was always a respected player, but it seems as though a retrospect of his career and his years of hard work at Porto have enabled football fans to appreciate his legacy even more – both what he brought to Real Madrid at his best and his continued professionalism for Porto at ages when most players are either out of football or embarrassing themselves.

In a way, Pepe never had a decline phase. He always managed to stay productive, effective, and relevant, tailing off from his incredible highs at Real Madrid to a consistent high standard at Porto.

All those years Pepe was criticized for being too rambunctious and even a liability to his team because of his temper ended up giving way to a final decade in football that saw Pepe become as respected as his old hotheaded center back partner Sergio Ramos.

You can think of Pepe’s career as a tale of two decades. The first was the story of a young man trying to avoid undermining his own talent with the very aggression and athleticism that made him a star, and the second was that of a sagely ruler at the back who learned to channel what were perceived as weaknesses into strengths that made him an immovable foundation at the heart of the defense.

Pepe will go down as one of the best defenders in Real Madrid history, one of the most important players in Portugal’s history, and, perhaps just as importantly, a loyal and indispensable servant to Porto.