Sporting v Nacional: How Rui Borges handed the armband to Eduardo Quaresma | OneFootball

Sporting’s victory over Nacional (2-1) was marked not only by the goals from Pedro Gonçalves and Luis Suárez, but also by a symbolic moment for Eduardo Quaresma. The center-back wore the captain’s armband for the first time with the main team, in a match where he played a direct role in the result and confirmed his growing status within the Sporting squad.

With Morten Hjulmand unavailable, Matheus Reis suspended, and Gonçalo Inácio and Daniel Bragança on the bench, Rui Borges was forced to go further down the usual captain hierarchy. The choice fell on a homegrown player, 23 years old, who returned to the starting eleven and led the team on the field, even playing with a protective mask due to a fracture in his left jaw.

Although this leadership is now visible, it is not a recent phenomenon. At the start of the season, Rui Borges had already challenged Eduardo Quaresma to take on more responsibility in the locker room, both on and off the pitch. The center-back, who has been at the Academy since the age of nine, has been gradually gaining internal influence.

Eduardo Quaresma is, in fact, one of the most decorated players in the current squad. He has three national championships, a Portuguese Cup, and a League Cup to his name, and is also associated with an interesting fact: whenever he was part of the main group during the season, Sporting finished as champions.

After the match, the center-back did not hide his emotion about the moment. “Wearing the captain’s armband at my boyhood club was a dream come true. +3,” he wrote on social media, receiving several messages of recognition from his teammates.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.