Podcast Portugal meets Ángel Monzón, founder of KAIS FC, building a football club from scratch in Lisbon and filming every step from Portugal’s seventh tier.

Most people who dream of owning a football club never act on it. Ángel did. Originally from Madrid, he built his career in strategy consulting and investment banking before becoming chief of staff at a fast-growing startup that went on to a successful exit. While working in Dubai, he began researching opportunities across sport, media and consumer brands, and KAIS FC emerged from that search: a club reverse-engineered from a storytelling product, rather than a storytelling product bolted on to a club. The name, he explains, is loosely inspired by the Lisbon coast and chosen for its short, international sound.

At the heart of KAIS is the KAIS Story Series, a professionally produced, English-language weekly film of around twenty minutes documenting the creation of the club with complete transparency: the finances, the mistakes, the trials and the difficult conversations. Justin and Ángel discuss why human stories can drive deeper engagement than the match itself, drawing on Drive to Survive and Wrexham, and why recurring behind-the-scenes content gives sponsors far more to work with than a shirt or a hoarding.

Ángel explains why he chose Portugal over his native Spain. A new club in Lisbon enters at the seventh tier, compared with as low as the twelfth in Spain, making the route to the top flight considerably shorter. Lisbon’s growing international community, drawn by the city’s startup scene and quality of life, also offers a ready-made local audience for matches, events and community building.

The conversation covers the club’s €750,000 Founding Owners round, around two-thirds of which is already secured, and Ángel’s plan to bring Portuguese professional footballers nearing or entering retirement on board as equity-owning, hands-on partners rather than paid endorsers. Justin, who is pursuing a similar athlete-ownership model with the Wave Pool Surf League, shares his perspective on the challenges athletes face after their careers end, while Ángel is candid that a venture like KAIS is high risk and should only ever form a small part of a diversified portfolio.

Looking ahead, KAIS plans to enter the seventh tier in the 2027–28 season with a squad of fourth- and fifth-tier ability, with the first videos arriving in January 2027 and player trials and recruitment forming a central storyline before the first match in September. Ángel also outlines plans to lease a small, modern ground for the opening seasons, with a longer-term vision of an academy and a purpose-built stadium that doubles as an entertainment venue. The ambition is the Primeira Liga within ten years, with the 2042 Champions League as the club’s North Star, powered by a scalable media business, data-driven recruitment and professional management in the mould of Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth.

Podcast Portugal is proud to be an official fan of KAIS FC, and one of the very first. Follow the journey from the beginning:

Watch Episode 0 and subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kaisfc

Read the weekly KAIS FC newsletter: https://kaisfc.substack.com/

Follow Ángel’s daily updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelmonzonmorales/

Visit the club and apply to become a Founding Owner: https://kaisfc.com

Solar panels and batteries in Portugal: Solviva founder John Wallace explains system sizing, registration, EV charging and how to cut your electricity bills.

With 260 to 300 days of sunshine a year and electricity prices that keep climbing, Portugal is one of Europe’s most compelling places to go solar. Yet many homeowners and businesses end up with systems that are poorly sized, unregistered or impossible to upgrade. In this episode, Justin West sits down with John Wallace, founder of Solviva, who brought his experience from South Africa’s solar industry to Portugal to make the process simpler, more transparent and properly supported.

Justin shares his own frustrating experience with one of Portugal’s major energy providers: an oversized system, no backup capability during grid outages, delays with legal registration and a customer service line that offered few answers. John explains why generic “package” solutions so often fall short, and why every installation should begin with a careful analysis of current and future energy needs.

The conversation covers the essentials every property owner should understand before signing a contract: why systems above 700W must be registered by the installer, and why payment should be held back until that is complete; how correct sizing maximises self-consumption rather than exporting surplus energy for little return; the importance of choosing a hybrid inverter so batteries can be added later; and how bi-hourly tariffs can be used to charge batteries overnight at lower cost.

Looking ahead, John explores the arrival of vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid technology, expected within the next two to three years, which will allow electric vehicles to act as home batteries. He also discusses the realities of going fully off-grid versus staying grid-tied, the role and limits of AI in solar planning, and why experienced human advice still makes the difference.

With well-designed systems typically paying for themselves within three to six years, and some clients reducing their electricity bills by more than 80 per cent, this episode is an essential listen for anyone considering solar, batteries or an EV charger in Portugal.

To arrange a personalised solar consultation with John Wallace, visit www.solviva.biz, where you can complete the energy needs questionnaire or book a meeting directly.

Was Christopher Columbus a Portuguese prince born in Madeira? Dr Manuel Rosa on his new book, a vanished Polish king and a secret kept for centuries.

For more than five centuries, Christopher Columbus has been remembered as an Italian weaver from Genoa. Dr Manuel Rosa believes that story is wrong. In this episode, Justin West welcomes Dr Rosa back to Podcast Portugal to discuss his new book, Colombo – Um Príncipe Português, the culmination of 35 years of research and the first in which he commits fully to his conclusion: that the navigator was born in Madeira, the son of King Władysław III of Poland.

Dr Rosa revisits the Battle of Varna in 1444, where the young king was said to have died. Letters written in 1445 describe him as alive and well, and a later letter from a monk points to his survival. According to Dr Rosa, Władysław chose not to reclaim his throne, made a pilgrimage as penance for breaking a truce, and settled in Madeira under the name Henrique Alemão, where he was granted lands confirmed by the Portuguese crown. His disappearance allowed his brother Casimir to take the Polish throne, and the truth was kept hidden at the highest levels of European power to prevent civil war.

The conversation explores how the names Colón, Colombo and Columbus became confused, beginning with an error in Rome in 1493, and how nineteenth-century historians attached the navigator's life to a Genoese weaver of the same name. Dr Rosa argues that a weaver could never have married into the nobility, as Columbus did when he wed Filipa Moniz, nor risen to become admiral and viceroy. Growing up in Madeira, where villages were linked by sea and his father owned boats, the young heir would instead have learned navigation from childhood.

Dr Rosa sets out the documents behind his case, including archival letters, chronicles and a Lithuanian genealogy linking the Polish royal house to the Colón family. He also explains why, as heir to the thrones of Poland, Hungary and Lithuania, Columbus's true identity had to remain a secret, and previews his next book, which will examine the 1492 voyage as a covert Portuguese mission against Spain.

Colombo – Um Príncipe Português is available now in Portuguese from bookshops across Portugal, with an English edition still to be announced.

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