PROFILE | Can Joao Neves replicate the Andres Iniesta-Xavi partnership alongside Vitinha at PSG? | OneFootball

“He will define an era of Portuguese football,” said Vitinha. He was speaking not only about his compatriot, but his midfield partner at Paris Saint-Germain, João Neves. Vitinha is capable of doing the same, and together, they could create something even more special. “We have similar personalities. We love spending time together. Sometimes I feel bad about complimenting him so much,” said Vitinha, whose excellent relationship off the pitch very much translates on it, one evocative of a certain famous duo at Barcelona. “Xavi and Andres Iniesta? I can’t compare myself. I don’t want to either. If one day, at the end of our careers, we are compared to them, it would be fantastic, but I don’t think we will. We aren’t at their level, at least not yet,” said the former Wolverhampton Wanderers loanee. 

There is modesty in Vitinha’s words, but also a recognition that one season is far from sufficient to garner such comparisons. But their exceptional partnership last season cannot be understated. It is their partnership, coupled with the balance that Fabián Ruiz provided, arguably more so than Ousmane Dembélé’s metamorphosis, that led PSG to their maiden Champions League title.

Like Iniesta and Xavi, where when you talk about one, you are obliged to mention the other, Vitinha and Neves are too inseparable, their skillsets so complementary. It is no coincidence that Vitinha has gone to the next level since Neves’ arrival in 2024.

João is a Jack of all trades, and he masters them all, too. He is the aggressive pitbull who kicks at the heels of his opponent. He is dogged off the ball and supremely gifted, elegant, and composed on it. He is a complete midfielder. Whilst he is best when given the freedom to roam, to create, he also has the ball progression skills, the positioning, and the defensive reflexes to play a No.6 role, even if that would inhibit some of his greatest strengths. 

And it is this versatility and varied skillset that made him such hot property at the time he joined PSG. Unlike Vitinha, who had previously failed following a move into one of Europe’s big five leagues and had seen his reputation damaged as a result, Neves had Europe at his feet. All of those competing at the top of the Premier League were watching and admiring his exploits at Benfica, as were the high-profile Spanish clubs.

An aerial threat

Only a teenager, he already felt like the finished article, and so the €60m fee that PSG paid seems like a bargain. “Today, it’s easy to say that he was sold for a low price, but at the time, I think it was the right price,” said Luís Campos in December. 

And he has developed further at PSG. As well as capable of performing a variety of roles in midfield, he could equally be a No.9, as his two hat-tricks have shown. His hat-trick against Toulouse earlier this season was absolutely sublime, one of the all-time great hat-tricks, consisting of two acrobatic overhead kicks in the first-half and a sublime effort from outside the box. 

It wouldn’t be his only hat-trick of 2025 as he would repeat the feat with Portugal just a couple of months later in a 9-1 win over Armenia. Once again, there was an effort drilled into the corner from outside the box, a free-kick clipping off the underside of the bar and an instinctive poacher’s goal from inside the box; incredibly, those were his first goals at international level. 

None of the aforementioned six goals came with his head, but he has already scored three headed goals this season, despite measuring just 1.74m. One of them was a last-gasp winner against Olympique Lyonnais.

Neves in incognito mode

His diminutive size may – in a roundabout way – have helped Neves to hone his heading skills, forcing him to be more intelligent, to find spaces, to time his jumps and his runs, and that work also translates more generally to his attacking play and his instincts in and around the box. A purported weakness has been turned into a strength. After his three goals against Toulouse, Luis Enrique said that the midfielder “has the quality to score even more goals,” and he has repeatedly shown that. This recent burst of goals (five goals in nine Ligue 1 games this season) does not look to be a flash-in-the-pan; after 17 goal contributions in his debut campaign at the Parc des Princes, he already has 11 this season, despite missing a good portion of the campaign due to a hamstring injury.

Neves is the full package; you could hardly ask for anything more from a midfielder. Through merely possessing him, PSG are the envy of Europe. “He will be one of the best in the coming years, if not the best. I am lucky to be able to play alongside him because he allows me to be better,” said Vitinha. But none of this is flattery or hot air, there truly is no reason for Neves to be one day considered the best midfielder in the world. Having finished 19th in the most recent Ballon d’Or, he is already gaining recognition and plaudits and it is easy to forget that he is only 21.

But he is not a player who seeks the limelight. He frequently talks about doing the dirty work, the hard running, making life easier for his teammates. And he certainly doesn’t seek the spotlight off the pitch. He recently revealed how he tries to remain incognito around the City of Lights. “I go to the café and all of that, and I try to go under the radar as much as possible. I don’t have Vitinha’s moustache, for example, or something in the way that I move that make people instantly recognise me. Putting on a hat and wearing what I usually wear is enough,” he told RMC Sport. Discrete on the streets, you can’t take your eyes off him when he sets foot on the pitch.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle