"The main difficulties are that there are, in essence, few resources allocated to the selection [...] and the common citizen, interpreting that Angola is a country full of power and also resource capacity, does not understand very well what it is like that his main team has these difficulties", he told the Lusa agency.
Pedro Gonçalves recalled the "most prominent" moment of the Angolan team, their presence at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
"There are a lot of [financial difficulties], especially because Angola is a country with a lot of vitality and a lot of financial power, but which has been going through a crisis", he said.
A crisis that, in his opinion, is reflected "in football and in the confidence that Angolans reflect in their main team, particularly the support structures".
"We feel this a lot, because we were very cut off from the resources needed for high competition. But, fortunately, work, resilience, persistence of ideas, the ability to overcome difficulties and tensions meant that this persistence, over time, could bend the 'cable of storms'", he explained.
Currently, he continued, "there is beginning to be greater involvement, providing the national team with more resources, namely financial power, which is very important".
"Because it allows us a set of resources and benefits that professional and elite football requires today, but it is still a very different panorama", he acknowledged.
The Portuguese coach, in Angola for six years, added that this is also reflected in Angolan football, "even the internal championship itself, Girabola, once had a bigger dimension" than it does now.
"This difference in expectations depending on our [Portuguese] context is the biggest difficulty", assumed Pedro Soares Gonçalves, on the sidelines of the Forum of the National Association of Football Coaches (ANTF).
On the other hand, he recognized that "Angola ends up being a country of opportunities", to point out the challenges and joys with the opportunity to launch projects and implement new ideas.
"We are still in a period of growth, with some milestones to be achieved, but looking back we see that successful clubs are gaining solidity, gaining structure, realizing that good things are about to come," he said.
In his opinion, there is "immense potential" in Angola, and "the Angolan player is endowed with unparalleled motor dexterity, availability and contagious joy and this is part, a little, of the day-to-day" work, that of "finding a balance between the demands of professionalism and the demand that is necessary to be in football's elite".
"But, at the same time, we find a commitment to relaxation, joy and the feeling of fun that, for an African, must always be present", he revealed.
Pedro Gonçalves was invited to stay at the 'Palancas Negras', to "continue the work, looking forward to the World Cup 2026 cycle".
The ANTF Forum will take place this Monday and Tuesday in Viseu, Portugal, the European City of Sport in 2024, and will be attended by around 1000 football and futsal coaches.
