Diogo Nascimento: Mendilibar's Favourite Pupil | OneFootball

If you wanted a single clip to explain who Diogo Nascimento is becoming for Olympiacos, it’s his goal against Kifissia. Playing as one of deeper-lying double pivots — in a system where deeper midfielders are not encouraged to leave their station — carrying the ball from midfield, timing his run into the box, and smashing it above the goalkeeper. It was a moment that felt wrong for a Mendilibar side… and yet completely right for this version of Olympiacos.

On a day when the Red-and-Whites went back to the top of the table, the story underneath the 3–1 win was the emergence of the 22-year-old Portuguese midfielder who’s forcing his claim for a more important role in the team; from “hot prospect” into “pillar”.

This is the rise of Diogo Nascimento — and why José Luis Mendilibar looks at him like the ideal student in a very demanding classroom.

The Goal That Broke the System

Under Mendilibar, the double pivot midfielders are usually shackled. They recycle, they cover, they press, they protect transitions. They don’t go charging into the box like late-arriving No.8s in a Premier League highlight reel.

Nascimento did exactly that for the goal that broke the deadlock.

He picked his moment, surged from midfield into the penalty area, received the ball, and lashed it into the back of the net. As our co-host Ari said on the podcast, you “almost never see” that from a Mendilibar centre mid:

That’s the paradox of Nascimento: he fits the system because he understands it, but he’s also expanding what’s possible inside it.

And it wasn’t just the goal. Earlier he produced a gorgeous delivery across goal that should have been a tap-in for El Kaabi — only for the Moroccan to rattle the crossbar from close range. On another day, Diogo walks out with a goal and assist, and we’re talking about a complete midfield performance on the box score too, not just on the eye test.

Seeing the Picture Before the Ball Arrives

The word that keeps coming up in connection with Nascimento is intelligence. Nascimento plays like someone who sees the picture a second earlier than everyone else. One touch, two touches at most. Receive, turn, find the angle. He doesn’t overcomplicate, but he also doesn’t hide. Ari put it simply:

In a squad that still has a few “touch-touch-think” players, Diogo’s “think-touch-release” style is priceless. He links the lines like a modern interior midfielder: close enough to the six to help build, close enough to the ten to combine around the box.

There was even a comparison with Hwang In-beom — not as a clone, but as a “beautiful player” type. Hwang arrived in a broken team and looked like the only adult in the room at times. Nascimento is coming into a far more functional side, which makes his adaptation even more interesting: he’s not thriving because he’s the only one with ideas, he’s adding quality to a structure that already works.

From “Loan Him to Rio Ave” to Man of the Match

If you rewind to the summer, Nascimento was exactly the sort of signing fans assumed will be parked somewhere else. Portuguese, technical, under-21 international, around €4m — the classic profile that often screams: “He’ll go to Rio Ave or another loan and we’ll check back in a year.”

From the scouting report Thrylos 7 International did this summer, we didn’t expect Diogo to have a major role this season. The assumption was:

Instead, we’re here in November and he’s scoring decisive league goals, starting away matches, and walking off with Man of the Match performance.

Our French co-host Martial pointed out, this isn’t by accident:

In other words: the timeline has been fast-tracked. Nascimento isn’t ahead of schedule — he’s blowing the schedule up.

Why Mendilibar Loves Him

If you want to understand why Nascimento has jumped the queue ahead of other talented players, you only need one line from Mendilibar’s post-match comments:

With this coach, that’s everything. Mendilibar is famously strict about structure. He loves pressing, repetition, players who follow instructions. The more creative, anarchic players — your Cabellas and Yazicis of the world — get fewer minutes because they colour outside the lines a bit too often for his taste.

Nascimento is the opposite type:

So you get a midfielder who not only brings flair and line-breaking passes, but does it within the framework the coach wants. For a manager like Mendi, that’s the dream combination.

Martial summed it up perfectly:

That’s why he’s the favourite pupil. Others might have more highlight-reel skills but Nascimento speaks the coach’s footballing language.

The Last Step: Physicality and Pressing

This isn’t a finished article. There’s one area where Nascimento still needs to grow if he wants to become undroppable in Europe: physicality.

But the encouraging part is that his baseline is already good enough to contribute now — and the weaknesses are coachable.

He’s not a luxury ten who disappears without the ball. He’s already functioning as an eight, sometimes as a deeper midfielder, taking on defensive responsibility while still carrying creative load.

You can bulk a player up. You can drill pressing triggers. You can’t give someone his brain.

A Symbol of the New Olympiacos

What Nascimento represents is bigger than just one player hitting form. He’s the bridge between several things Olympiacos have been trying to unify for years:

He also sits interestingly in the ecosystem between academy products and foreign signings. While the pod spent a lot of time (rightly) lamenting that more academy players don’t get minutes, Nascimento shows what happens when you get the foreign recruitment right: you’re not blocking local talent with journeymen, you’re adding someone who genuinely raises the ceiling.

What Comes Next

If he continues on this trajectory, there’s a clear path in front of Diogo Nascimento:

For now, though, it’s simpler than that. He’s just a young midfielder who:

Not bad for a player many thought would be quietly loaned out. If Olympiacos really are at their turning point this season — tactically, mentally, structurally — then Diogo Nascimento isn’t just along for the ride. He might be the one quietly steering.

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