Portugal is the new European champion… and how that will affect Integrate2017

Posted: July 11, 2016  |  Categories: Other

A goal from Eder, at the 109 minutes of the match, it was worth the European champion title to Portugal, an unprecedented title in Portuguese football, succeeding our neighbor Spain.

PORTUGAL is the Euro 2016 champions. No matter what anyone says or does, that will not change.

Portugal Euro 2016 champion

(photo from UEFA)

No matter now saying that we all (the Portuguese people) believed. It is easy to speak when things are over and we all know the end result but the reality is that even though we all have believed in the beginning, during the group phase we all doubt and at some point, we all throw the towel to the floor… except on man who had the task to lead the group and encourage a handful of great players: coach Fernando Santos!

He said after the null against Austria (second match): “I only return to Portugal on 11th and I will be received in the party” – he was criticized/joked by everyone. I was one of these unbelieving that believed that the only way for that to happens as if he was staying on holiday in France to see the other games.

Sorry for doubting you mister Fernando Santos… But we start to believe after we beat Croatia in the Round of 16… and you all know the rest of the story… we were unstoppable, tremendous efficiency, and despite a lot of criticism about him, I never saw Ronaldo playing so well for his team and he was there when we need him.

We are champions and the feeling is tremendously good, these are people that deserved this for many years!

But… how this – Portugal been European Champion – will affect the Integrate2017 in London, even without Saravana Kumar knowing yet?

Well, if you already attended to a BizTalk/Integrate event in London, you probably realized that sometimes we (the speakers) like to play tricks on each other… it happened in 2014 with Johan using a Canadian Hockey jersey (lost a bet against Kent), this year the revenge with a picture of Ken using a Sweden Hockey Jersey. And for that reason, I’m happy to publicly announce, again even without Saravana Kumar knowing, we already have two confirmed speakers for Integrate2017:

  • Steef-Jan Wiggers (wearing Pepe number 3 Portugal green jersey)
  • and Mikael Hakansson (wearing Cristiano Ronaldo number 7 Portugal jersey)!

How did that happen?

Well, let’s say that Portugal wasn’t the favorite team within our MVP’s Integration WhatsApp group (Spain, Germany or Belgium were there favorites teams) with the exception of Kent Weare that supported Portugal from day 1… So after Croatia, even without knowing the result of Wales and Belgium and thinking that we would play against Belgium, I bet with Steef-Jan Wiggers (at that time a Belgium supporter J) that Portugal will reach the final!

Lost bet Steef

Why Pepe? Because he is a Barcelona fan and doesn’t like Pepe too much.

In the final, I had 99% support of all MVP’s with the exception of Mikael – the only one supporting French – and I had a bet with him, he gave power to Johan Hedberg to accept all the deals while he was in vacations, that if Portugal won the tournament he would have to wear the jersey your pet’s enemy: CR7 (also a Barcelona fan). He is now trying to find reasons to get away and not fulfill the bet.

In both cases, if I had lost I would have worn the jersey of Barcelona – Messi (although is a good player, it isn’t, by far, one of my favorite players) or use the Spain jersey in my session in London… uff, I’m safe from that! But in the end, I always believed!

Congratulations Portugal!

Author: Sandro Pereira

Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community.

4 thoughts on “Portugal is the new European champion… and how that will affect Integrate2017”

  1. Eh eh, I hope to be in London in 2017 to see them in Portuguese jerseys!

    Congratulations to our Team! They may not have played the most engaging and enjoyable football, but as you said, were very very effective. They made us all very happy and proud!
    I don’t know if I may have enjoyed it even more being outside of Portugal. What a party it was also here in Hamburg!

    Abraço Sandro!

  2. Dear author of this article.
    Let me first congratulate you and Portugal on this tremendous achievement. Although I share contemt for Pepe (aka Pig-head) with the entitet world outside Portugal, om still happy for you.

    Regering “the bet” in question, -It was called off before the game started. But, as the good sport that I am I volunteered to wear Steef-Jan’s Pepe shirt during my session (provided I’m doing one).

    Regards
    Mikael

  3. Parabens Portugal!! 🙂

    Wish I could be there, Sandro! If we could talk Javier into! 🙂

    Hahaha, there are some sour losers among the comentaristas aqui. 🙂

    Abraco!

    Mauricio Feijo

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