Vitinha, Joao Neves, Nuno Mendes, Gonçalo Ramos and the roots of PSG’s Portuguese core | OneFootball

L'Équipe reports that PSG were the most represented club in Portugal’s squad when it was announced, before Gonçalo Ramos joined AC Milan. This piece traces how Benfica and Sporting moulded Vitinha, Joao Neves, Nuno Mendes and Gonçalo Ramos.

In Seixal, 14-year-old winger Lourenço Ramos, Gonçalo’s brother, works on his skills in solitude before youth games and remembers crying with his father as Ramos struck a 2022 World Cup hat-trick against Switzerland in a 6-1 round of 16 win. He says he is quicker and more agile, might be better one day, and admires his brother’s perseverance.

At Faro’s CFT, coordinator Tiago Mendes points to a Joao Neves legacy of rigour, shirts tucked in and wrong socks meaning a seat in the stands. Five satellite centres act as an early filter, the best playing weekend tournaments for the real Benfica, and a wall lists graduates Gonçalo Ramos, Joao Neves and Joao Veloso, with one empty frame waiting.

Sporting Portugal leans on identity and production, with Paulo Gomes noting five or six academy players regularly involved and 43 debuts in eight years, roughly 5.5 per season. Over the last decade Benfica have generated 589 million euros from academy sales, Sporting 417 million.

Of the four, Joao Neves had the straightest rise, arriving small but stocky. Nuno Mendes debuted at 17 years and 11 months. Vitinha blossomed after being a 2019 Youth League final substitute, and Gonçalo Ramos broke through after a 15 centimetre growth spurt, even for Joao nothing was guaranteed.

Source: L'Équipe